Phosphorylation Regulation on the Homo-Dimeric Binding of Transactive Response DNA-Binding Protein

The dimerization of transactive response DNA-binding protein of 43 kDa (TDP-43) is crucial for the RNA metabolism, and the higher-order aggregation of TDP-43 would induce several neurodegenerative diseases. The dimerization and aggregation of TDP-43 are regulated by the phosphorylation on its N-terminal domain (NTD). Understanding the regulation mechanism of TDP-43 NTD dimerization is crucial for the preventing of harmful aggregation and the associated diseases. In this study, the dimerization processes of wild-type (WT), phosphorylated S48 (pS48), and phosphomimic S48E mutation (S48E) of TDP-43 NTD are characterized by the enhanced sampling technology. Our results show that the phosphorylation not only shift the conformation population of bound and unbound state of TDP-43 NTD, but also would regulate the dimerization processes, including increase the binding free-energy barrier. The phosphomimic mutation would also shift the conformational space of TDP-43 NTD dimer to the unbound structures; however, the thermodynamic and kinetic properties of the dimerization processes between the phosphorylated and phosphomimic mutant systems are distinct, which reminds us to carefully study the phosphorylation regulation by using the phosphomimic mutations.