In molecular biology, chaperone DnaJ, also known as Hsp40 (

heat shock protein Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are a family of proteins produced by cells in response to exposure to stressful conditions. They were first described in relation to heat shock, but are now known to also be expressed during other stresses including ex ...

40 kDa), is a molecular

chaperone protein In molecular biology, molecular chaperones are proteins that assist the conformational folding or unfolding of large proteins or macromolecular protein complexes. There are a number of classes of molecular chaperones, all of which function to assi ...

. It is expressed in a wide variety of organisms from bacteria to humans.

Function

Molecular chaperones are a diverse family of proteins that function to protect proteins from irreversible aggregation during synthesis and in times of cellular stress. The bacterial molecular chaperone

DnaK The 70 kilodalton heat shock proteins (Hsp70s or DnaK) are a family of conserved ubiquitously expressed heat shock proteins. Proteins with similar structure exist in virtually all living organisms and play crucial roles in the development of can ...

is an enzyme that couples cycles of ATP binding,

hydrolysis Hydrolysis (; ) is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution reaction, substitution, elimination reaction, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water ...

, and ADP release by an N-terminal ATP-hydrolyzing domain to cycles of sequestration and release of unfolded proteins by a

C-terminal The C-terminus (also known as the carboxyl-terminus, carboxy-terminus, C-terminal tail, carboxy tail, C-terminal end, or COOH-terminus) is the end of an amino acid chain (protein or polypeptide), terminated by a free carboxyl group (-COOH). When t ...

substrate binding domain. Dimeric

GrpE GrpE (''Gro-P'' like protein E) is a bacterial nucleotide exchange factor that is important for regulation of protein folding machinery, as well as the heat shock response. It is a heat-inducible protein and during stress it prevents unfolded pr ...

is the

co-chaperone Co-chaperones are proteins that assist chaperones in protein folding and other functions. Co-chaperones are the non-client binding molecules that assist in protein folding mediated by Hsp70 and Hsp90. They are particularly essential in stimulatio ...

for DnaK, and acts as a

nucleotide exchange factor Nucleotide exchange factors (NEFs) are proteins that stimulate the exchange (replacement) of nucleoside diphosphates for nucleoside triphosphates bound to other proteins. Function Many cellular proteins cleave ( hydrolyze) nucleoside triphosphat ...

, stimulating the rate of ADP release 5000-fold. DnaK is itself a weak

ATPase ATPases (, Adenosine 5'-TriPhosphatase, adenylpyrophosphatase, ATP monophosphatase, triphosphatase, ATP hydrolase, adenosine triphosphatase) are a class of enzymes that catalyze the decomposition of ATP into ADP and a free phosphate ion or ...

;

ATP hydrolysis ATP hydrolysis is the catabolic reaction process by which chemical energy that has been stored in the high-energy phosphoanhydride bonds in adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is released after splitting these bonds, for example in muscles, by produ ...

by DnaK is stimulated by its interaction with another co-chaperone, DnaJ. Thus the co-chaperones DnaJ and GrpE are capable of tightly regulating the nucleotide-bound and substrate-bound state of DnaK in ways that are necessary for the normal housekeeping functions and stress-related functions of the DnaK molecular chaperone cycle. This family of proteins contain a 70

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 a ...

consensus sequence In molecular biology and bioinformatics, the consensus sequence (or canonical sequence) is the calculated sequence of most frequent residues, either nucleotide or amino acid, found at each position in a sequence alignment. It represents the result ...

known as the J domain. The J domain of DnaJ interacts with

Hsp70 The 70 kilodalton heat shock proteins (Hsp70s or DnaK) are a family of conserved ubiquitously expressed heat shock proteins. Proteins with similar structure exist in virtually all living organisms and play crucial roles in the development of can ...

heat shock proteins. DnaJ heat-shock proteins play a role in regulating the

activity of Hsp70 heat-shock proteins. Besides stimulating the ATPase activity of DnaK through its J-domain, DnaJ also associates with unfolded polypeptide chains and prevents their aggregation. Thus, DnaK and DnaJ may bind to one and the same polypeptide chain to form a

ternary complex A ternary complex is a protein complex containing three different molecules that are bound together. In structural biology, ''ternary complex'' can also be used to describe a crystal containing a protein with two small molecules bound, such as a ...

. The formation of a ternary complex may result in cis-interaction of the J-domain of DnaJ with the ATPase domain of DnaK. An unfolded polypeptide may enter the chaperone cycle by associating first either with ATP-liganded DnaK or with DnaJ. DnaK interacts with both the backbone and

side chain In organic chemistry and biochemistry, a side chain is a substituent, chemical group that is attached to a core part of the molecule called the "main chain" or backbone chain, backbone. The side chain is a hydrocarbon branching element of a mo ...

s of a peptide substrate; it thus shows binding polarity and admits only L-peptide segments. In contrast, DnaJ has been shown to bind both L- and D-peptides and is assumed to interact only with the side chains of the substrate.

Domain architecture

Proteins in this family consist of three domains. The

N-terminal The N-terminus (also known as the amino-terminus, NH2-terminus, N-terminal end or amine-terminus) is the start of a protein or polypeptide, referring to the free amine group (-NH2) located at the end of a polypeptide. Within a peptide, the amin ...

domain is the J domain (described above). The central domain is a

cysteine Cysteine (; symbol Cys or C) is a semiessential proteinogenic amino acid with the chemical formula, formula . The thiol side chain in cysteine enables the formation of Disulfide, disulfide bonds, and often participates in enzymatic reactions as ...

-rich region, which contains four repeats of the motif CXXCXGXG where X is any amino acid. The isolated cysteine rich domain folds in

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

dependent fashion. Each set of two repeats binds one unit of zinc. Although this domain has been implicated in substrate binding, no evidence of specific interaction between the isolated DNAJ cysteine rich domain and various hydrophobic peptides has been found. This domain has disulphide isomerase activity. The function of the C-terminal is chaperone and dimerization.

Proteins containing a DnaJ domain

*''

Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

'':

DNAJA1 DnaJ homolog subfamily A member 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''DNAJA1'' gene In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in ...

; DNAJA2;

DNAJA3 DnaJ homolog subfamily A member 3, mitochondrial, also known as Tumorous imaginal disc 1 (TID1), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''DNAJA3'' gene on chromosome 16. This protein belongs to the DNAJ/Hsp40 protein family, which is known ...

; DNAJA4 (MST104); DNAJB1; DNAJB11; DNAJB13; DNAJB4; DNAJB5; DNAJB6; DNAJC17; DNAJC28 *''

Saccharomyces cerevisiae ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' () (brewer's yeast or baker's yeast) is a species of yeast (single-celled fungal microorganisms). The species has been instrumental in winemaking, baking, and brewing since ancient times. It is believed to have be ...

'': ZUO1

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaperone Dnaj Protein domains Protein families Co-chaperones