The C-terminus of ICln is natively disordered but displays local structural preformation

Abstract

ICln is a vital, ubiquitously expressed protein with roles in cell volume regulation, angiogenesis, cell morphology, activation of platelets and RNA processing. In previous work we have determined the 3D structure of the N-terminus of ICln (residues 1-159), which folds into a PH-like domain followed by an unstructured region (residues H134 - Q159) containing protein-protein interaction sites. Here we present sequence-specific resonance assignments of the C-terminus (residues Q159 - H235) of ICln by NMR, and show that this region of the protein is intrinsically unstructured. By applying 13 Cα- 13 Cβ secondary chemical shifts to detect possible preferences for secondary structure elements we show that the C-terminus of ICln adopts a preferred α-helical organization between residues E170 and E187, and exists preferentially in extended conformations (β-strands) between residues D161 to Y168 and E217 to T223. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.