Benjamin Velez, Richard M Walsh, Shaun Rawson, Aida Razi, Lea Adams, Erignacio Fermin Perez, Fenglong Jiao, Marie Blickling, Tamayanthi Rajakumar, Darlene Fung, Lan Huang, John Hanna
Many large molecular machines are too elaborate to assemble spontaneously and are built through ordered pathways orchestrated by dedicated chaperones. During assembly of the core particle (CP) of the proteasome, where protein degradation occurs, its six active sites are simultaneously activated via cleavage of N-terminal propeptides. Such activation is autocatalytic and coupled to fusion of two half-CP intermediates, which protects cells by preventing activation until enclosure of the active sites within the CP interior...
April 10, 2024: Nature Structural & Molecular Biology