Molecular dynamics of the neuronal EF-hand Ca2+-sensor Caldendrin

Abstract

Caldendrin, L- and S-CaBP1 are CaM-like Ca2+-sensors with different N-termini that arise from alternative splicing of the Caldendrin/CaBP1 gene and that appear to play an important role in neuronal Ca 2+-signaling. In this paper we show that Caldendrin is abundantly present in brain while the shorter splice isoforms L- and S-CaBP1 are not detectable at the protein level. Caldendrin binds both Ca2+ and Mg2+ with a global Kd in the low μM range. Interestingly, the Mg2+-binding affinity is clearly higher than in S-CaBP1, suggesting that the extended N-terminus might influence Mg 2+-binding of the first EF-hand. Further evidence for intra- and intermolecular interactions of Caldendrin came from gel-filtration, surface plasmon resonance, dynamic light scattering and FRET assays. Surprisingly, Caldendrin exhibits very little change in surface hydrophobicity and secondary as well as tertiary structure upon Ca2+-binding to Mg2+ -saturated protein. Complex inter- and intramolecular interactions that are regulated by Ca2+-binding, high Mg2+- and low Ca 2+-binding affinity, a rigid first EF-hand domain and little conformational change upon titration with Ca2+ of Mg 2+-liganted protein suggest different modes of binding to target interactions as compared to classical neuronal Ca2+-sensors. © 2014 Reddy et al.