NMR Structural Analysis and 3D Homology Modelling of APG8a from Arabidopsis thaliana

The gene coding for APG8a (At4g21980), a protein from Arabidopsis thaliana, is involved in the autophagy process. The protein is an interesting candidate for structure determination by NMR spectroscopy. Toward this end, APG8a has been produced recombinantly in Escherichia coli and typical NMR experiments such as $^{15}N-HSQC$, HNCA, HN(CO)CA, CBCA(CO)NH, HCCH-TOCSY, HNCO were performed. The backbone resonances, HN, N, CA, CB, and C' were sequence-specifically assigned, and the secondary structures including 3 $\alpha$ helices and $4\beta$ strands were deduced based on the assignments. Due to the intrinsic flexibility or the effect of the denaturant, the backbone resonances were not fully observed. Since the structure calculation by NMR data was not possible, the 3-dimensional model was built based on the sequence homology, and compared with the NMR results. The overall structure of the model could explain and complement the NMR derived secondary structures.