Project

Probing the proteome structure in living cells

Code
BOF/24J/2023/152
Duration
01 January 2024 → 31 December 2027
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Analytical biochemistry
    • Proteins
    • Proteomics
Keywords
Limited proteolysis Proteomics Mass spectrometrie Structural flexibility of proteins
 
Project description

By changing their structural conformation proteins swiftly respond to cellular stimuli and needs. A mass spectrometry (MS)-based method has been introduced to probe protein structural conformations in a whole proteome, which relies on a protease that cuts in a limited time-frame surface-available sites on proteins and such cuts are then read out by MS, hence its name limited proteolysis (LiP)-MS. LiP-MS works on lysates in which conformations of proteins may not reflect those in living cells because of inevitable protein denaturation during cell lysis. We propose a conformational proteomics method that directly works in living cells, this by expressing a protease of which the activity is tightly controlled. Once established, we will apply this method to study the influence of N-terminal acetylation on protein conformations and ligand-induced conformational changes of the glucocorticoid receptor.