HOXA9 transcription factor is expressed in hematopoietic stem cells and is involved in the regulation of their differentiation and maturation to various blood cells. HOXA9 is linked to various leukemia and is a marker for poor prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This protein has a conserved DNA-binding homeodomain and a transactivation domain. We show that this N-terminal transactivation domain is intrinsically disordered and inhibits DNA-binding by the homeodomain. Using NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulation, we show that the hexapeptide 197AANWLH202 in the disordered region transiently occludes the DNA-binding interface. The hexapeptide also forms a rigid segment, as determined by NMR dynamics, in an otherwise flexible disordered region. Interestingly, this hexapeptide is known to mediate the interaction of HOXA9 and its TALE partner proteins, such as PBX1, and help in cooperative DNA binding. Mutation of tryptophan to alanine in the hexapeptide abrogates the DNA-binding auto-inhibition. We propose that the disordered transactivation region plays a dual role in the regulation of HOXA9 function. In the absence of TALE partners, it inhibits DNA binding, and in the presence of TALE partners it interacts with the TALE protein and facilitates the cooperative DNA binding by the HOX-TALE complex.

Short linear motifs (SLiMs) are a unique and ubiquitous class of protein interaction modules that perform key regulatory functions and drive dynamic complex formation. For decades, interactions mediated by SLiMs have accumulated through detailed low-throughput experiments. Recent methodological advances have opened this previously underexplored area of the human interactome to high-throughput protein-protein interaction discovery. In this article, we discuss that SLiM-based interactions represent a significant blind spot in the current interactomics data, introduce the key methods that are illuminating the elusive SLiM-mediated interactome of the human cell on a large scale, and discuss the implications for the field.

Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that depend on host cellular machinery for performing even basic biological functions. One of the many ways they achieve this is through molecular mimicry, wherein the virus mimics a host sequence or structure, thereby being able to hijack the host\'s physiological interactions for its pathogenesis. Such adaptations are specific recognitions that often confer tissue and species-specific tropisms to the virus, and enable the virus to utilise previously existing host signalling networks, which ultimately aid in further steps of viral infection, such as entry, immune evasion and spread. A common form of sequence mimicry utilises short linear motifs (SLiMs). SLiMs are short-peptide sequences that mediate transient interactions and are major elements in host protein interaction networks. This work is aimed at providing a comprehensive review of current literature of some well-characterised SLiMs that play a role in the attachment and entry of viruses into host cells, which mimic physiological receptor-ligand interactions already present in the host. Considering recent trends in emerging diseases, further research on such motifs involved in viral entry can help in the discovery of previously unknown cellular receptors utilised by viruses, as well as help in the designing of targeted therapeutics such as vaccines or inhibitors directed towards these interactions.

Protein arginine methylation is an extensive and functionally significant post-translational modification. However, little is known about its role in differentiation at the systems level. Using stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) proteomics of whole proteome analysis in proliferating or five-day differentiated mouse C2C12 myoblasts, followed by high-resolution mass spectrometry, biochemical assays, and specific immunoprecipitation of mono- or dimethylated arginine peptides, we identified several protein families that were differentially methylated on arginine. Our study is the first to reveal global changes in the arginine mono- or dimethylation of proteins in proliferating myoblasts and differentiated myocytes and to identify enriched protein domains and novel short linear motifs (SLiMs). Our data may be crucial for dissecting the links between differentiation and cancer growth.

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Short linear motifs (SLiMs) are key to cell physiology mediating reversible protein-protein interactions. Precise identification of SLiMs remains a challenge, being the main drawback of most bioinformatic prediction tools, their low specificity (high number of false positives). An important, usually overlooked, aspect is the relation between SLiMs mutations and disease. The presence of variants in each residue position can be used to assess the relevance of the corresponding residue(s) for protein function, and its (in)tolerance to change. In the present work, we combined sequence variant information and structural analysis of the energetic impact of single amino acid substitution (SAS) in SLiM-Receptor complex structure, and showed that it improves prediction of true functional SLiMs. Our strategy is based on building a SAS tolerance matrix that shows, for each position, whether one of the possible 19 SAS is tolerated or not. Herein we present the MotSASi strategy and analyze in detail 3 SLiMs involved in intracellular protein trafficking (phospho-independent tyrosine-based motif (NPx[Y/F]), type 1 PDZ-binding motif ([S/T]x[V/I/L]COOH) and tryptophan-acidic motif ([L/M]xW[D/E])). Our results show that inclusion of variant and structure information improves both prediction of true SLiMs and rejection of false positives, while also allowing better classification of variants inside SLiMs, a result with a direct impact in clinical genomics.

Short linear motifs (SLiMs) located in disordered regions of multidomain proteins are important for the organization of protein-protein interaction networks. By dynamic association with their binding partners, SLiMs enable assembly of multiprotein complexes, pivotal for the regulation of various aspects of cell biology in higher organisms. Despite their importance, there is a paucity of molecular tools to study SLiMs of endogenous proteins in live cells. LC3 interacting regions (LIRs), being quintessential for orchestrating diverse stages of autophagy, are a prominent example of SLiMs and mediate binding to the ubiquitin-like LC3/GABARAP family of proteins. The role of LIRs ranges from the posttranslational processing of their binding partners at early stages of autophagy to the binding of selective autophagy receptors (SARs) to the autophagosome. In order to generate tools to study LIRs in cells, we engineered high affinity binders of LIR motifs of three archetypical SARs: OPTN, p62, and NDP52. In an array of in vitro and cellular assays, the engineered binders were shown to have greatly improved affinity and specificity when compared with the endogenous LC3/GABARAP family of proteins, thus providing a unique possibility for modulating LIR interactions in living systems. We exploited these novel tools to study the impact of LIR inhibition on the fitness and the responsiveness to cytarabine treatment of THP-1 cells - a model for studying acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Our results demonstrate that inhibition of LIR of a single autophagy receptor is insufficient to sensitize the cells to cytarabine, while simultaneous inhibition of three LIR motifs in three distinct SARs reduces the IC50 of the chemotherapeutic.

Peptide-displayed phage libraries are billion-clone collections of diverse chimeric bacteriophage particles, decorated by genetically fused peptides built from a random combination of natural amino acids. Studying the molecular evolution of peptide-displayed libraries in mammalian model systems, using in vivo phage display techniques, can provide invaluable knowledge about the underlying physiology of the vasculature system, allow recognition of organ- and tissue-specific networks of protein-protein interactions, and provide ligands for targeted diagnostics and therapeutics. Recently, we discovered that landscape phage libraries, a specific type of multivalent peptide phage display library, expose on their surface comprehensive collections of elementary binding units (EBUs), which can form short linear motifs (SLiMs) that interact with functional domains of physiologically relevant proteins. Because of their unique structural and functional features, landscape phages can use an alternative mechanism of directed molecular evolution, i.e., combinatorial avidity selection. These discoveries fueled our interest in revisiting the in vivo evolution of phage displayed libraries using another format of display, i.e., landscape phages. In this study, we monitored the evolution of a landscape phage library in a mouse model with and without an implanted human breast cancer tumor xenograft. As expected, the multivalent architecture of landscape phage displayed proteins provided strong tissue selectivity and resulted in a huge diversity of tissue penetrating, chimeric phage particles. We identified several types of EBU interactions that evolved during the course of tissue distribution, which included interactions of EBUs with all tissue types, those EBUs that interacted selectively with specific organs or tissues with shared gene expression profiles or functionalities, and other EBUs that interacted in a tissue-selective manner. We demonstrated that landscape phage libraries are a rich collection of unique nanobioparticles that can be used to identify functional organ and tissue-binding elements after the evolution of a phage display library in vivo.

Short linear motifs (SLiMs) are functional stretches of protein sequence that are of crucial importance for numerous biological processes by mediating protein-protein interactions. These motifs often comprise peptides of less than 10 amino acids that modulate protein-protein interactions. While well-characterized in eukaryotic intracellular signaling, their role in prokaryotic signaling is less well-understood. We surveyed the distribution of known motifs in prokaryotic extracellular and virulence proteins across a range of bacterial species and conducted searches for novel motifs in virulence proteins. Many known motifs in virulence effector proteins mimic eukaryotic motifs and enable the pathogen to control the intracellular processes of their hosts. Novel motifs were detected by finding those that had evolved independently in three or more unrelated virulence proteins. The search returned several significantly over-represented linear motifs of which some were known motifs and others are novel candidates with potential roles in bacterial pathogenesis. A putative C-terminal G[AG].$ motif found in type IV secretion system proteins was among the most significant detected. A KK$ motif that has been previously identified in a plasminogen-binding protein, was demonstrated to be enriched across a number of adhesion and lipoproteins. While there is some potential to develop peptide drugs against bacterial infection based on bacterial peptides that mimic host components, this could have unwanted effects on host signaling. Thus, novel SLiMs in virulence factors that do not mimic host components but are crucial for bacterial pathogenesis, such as the type IV secretion system, may be more useful to develop as leads for anti-microbial peptides or drugs.