Examination of the dimerization states of the single-stranded RNA recognition protein pentatricopeptide repeat 10 (PPR10). Author Quanxiu Li, Chuangye Yan, Huisha Xu, Zheng Wang, Jiafu Long, Wenqi Li, Jianping Wu, Ping Yin, Nieng Yan Publication Year 2014 Type Journal Article Abstract Pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins, particularly abundant in plastids and mitochrondria of angiosperms, include a large number of sequence-specific RNA binding proteins that are involved in diverse aspects of organelle RNA metabolisms. PPR proteins contain multiple tandom repeats, and each repeat can specifically recognize a RNA base through residues 2, 5, and 35 in a modular fashion. The crystal structure of PPR10 from maize chloroplast exhibits dimeric existence both in the absence and presence of the 18-nucleotide psaJ RNA element. However, previous biochemical analysis suggested a monomeric shift of PPR10 upon RNA binding. In this report, we show that the amino-terminal segments of PPR10 determine the dimerization state of PPR10. A single amino acid alteration of cysteine to serine within repeat 10 of PPR10 further drives dimerization of PPR10. The biochemical elucidation of the determinants for PPR10 dimerization may provide an important foundation to understand the working mechanisms of PPR proteins underlying their diverse physiological functions. Keywords RNA-Binding Proteins, Molecular Sequence Data, Protein Binding, Protein Structure, Tertiary, Amino Acid Sequence, Sequence Homology, Amino Acid, Arabidopsis, Plant Proteins, Cysteine, Protein Multimerization, Crystallization, Chloroplasts, Adenine, Chloroplast Proteins, Codon, Nucleic Acids, Point Mutation, Serine, Zea mays Journal J Biol Chem Volume 289 Issue 45 Pages 31503-12 Date Published 2014 Nov 07 ISSN Number 1083-351X DOI 10.1074/jbc.M114.575472 Alternate Journal J Biol Chem PMCID PMC4223348 PMID 25231995 PubMedPubMed CentralGoogle ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML