# Backbone resonance assignments of the C-terminal region of human translation initiation factor eIF4B

**Somnath Mondal**

Univ. Bordeaux, Inserm U1212, CNRS UMR 5320, Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie

**Sabrina Rousseau**

Univ. Bordeaux, Inserm U1212, CNRS UMR 5320, Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie

**Vincent Talenton**

Univ. Bordeaux, Inserm U1212, CNRS UMR 5320, Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie

**Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Thiam**

Univ. Bordeaux, Inserm U1212, CNRS UMR 5320, Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie

**Mikayel Aznauryan**

Univ. Bordeaux, Inserm U1212, CNRS UMR 5320, Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie

**Cameron D. Mackereth** (✉ cameron.mackereth@inserm.fr)

Univ. Bordeaux, Inserm U1212, CNRS UMR 5320, Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie

## Research Article

**Keywords:** Translation initiation, eIF4B, intrinsically disordered region, IDP

**Posted Date:** May 17th, 2023

**DOI:** https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2926413/v1

**License:** © This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Read Full License

**Additional Declarations:** No competing interests reported.

**Version of Record:** A version of this preprint was published at Biomolecular NMR Assignments on June 27th, 2023. See the published version at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12104-023-10141-7.
Abstract

Translation initiation in eukaryotes is an early step in protein synthesis, requiring multiple factors to
recruit the ribosomal small subunit to the mRNA 5' untranslated region. One such protein factor is the
eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4B (eIF4B), which increases the activity of the eIF4A RNA helicase,
and is linked to cell survival and proliferation. We report here the protein backbone chemical shift
assignments corresponding to the C-terminal 279 residues of human eIF4B. Analysis of the chemical
shift values identifies one main helical region in the area previously linked to RNA binding, and confirms
that the overall C-terminal region is intrinsically disordered.

Biological context

At its core, translation initiation in eukaryotes involves recruitment of the small ribosomal subunit with associated protein factors (the 43S pre-initiation complex) onto the protein-coding mRNA (Jackson et al. 2010). This process is usually achieved by the help of a mRNA cap-binding complex known as eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4F (eIF4F; comprising the three factors eIF4E, eIF4A and eIF4G), as well as eIF4B (or the homologue eIF4H) (Merrick 2015). In a concerted action, these factors recognize the mRNA 5'-cap and unwind the structured elements at the 5'-end untranslated region (5'-UTR) of the mRNA. This action facilitates the recruitment of the 43S pre-initiation complex, the scanning of the mRNA towards the start-codon recognition, and also ribosome assembly (Jackson et al. 2010). Throughout this process, eIF4B stimulates the helicase activity of eIF4A (Rogers et al. 2001; Jackson et al. 2010; Özeş et al. 2011), and increases the processivity of eIF4A helicase function (García-García et al. 2015). Thus, the function of eIF4B is particularly crucial for translation of mRNAs with structured 5'-UTRs (Shahbazian et al. 2010; Sen et al. 2016). At the molecular level, human eIF4B is a 611 residue RNA-binding protein comprising a structured RNA recognition motif (RRM) domain near the N-terminus, as well as non-canonical RNA-binding region within the C-terminal region (CTR). Early work had identified amino acids 385-423 as the center of this C-terminal RNA-binding region (Méthot et al. 1994) (Naranda et al. 1994), and identified an additional stretch of basic residues from 434-444 that might be involved. The minimal region of eIF4B required for interaction with eIF4A (in complex with RNA and AMP-PNP) is also located within the CTR (Rozovsky et al. 2008). IN addition, several physiologically significant phosphorylation sites were reported within the CTR of eIF4B, among which the Ser406 and Ser422 have been shown to stimulate translation *in vivo* (Shahbazian et al. 2006; Wang et al. 2016). While the structure of the human eIF4B RRM domain has already been determined (Fleming et al. 2003), the eIF4B CTR is predicted to be intrinsically disordered and currently lacks characterization at the atomic level.

With a future goal to look at residue-level functions of the eIF4B C-terminal region, we report chemical
shift resonance assignments of the backbone ¹H, ¹³C and ¹⁵N nuclei for the complete second half of
human eIF4B (residue 333 to 611), as well as two shorter constructs that divide this region into two parts.
The chemical shift values are consistent with an intrinsically disordered peptide, except for a helical
segment in a region with previous links to RNA binding.
# Methods and Experiments

Using the protein sequence of human eIF4B (Uniprot entry P23588), the corresponding DNA codon-optimized for *E. coli* was obtained (Integrated DNA Technologies). The C-terminal region (CTR; residues 333 to 611) was inserted into the SspI site of the modified pET vector (Addgene plasmid #29666) using the ligation-independent cloning protocol. The vector allows for expression of the construct with an N-terminal hexahistidine (His<sub>6</sub>) tag followed by a tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease site. Subsequent PCR amplification using forward (GAAGATTGCTAACATTGGAAGTGG) and reverse (CTTCCAATGTTAGCAATCTTCTTCTTTG) primers were used to subclone the CTR-N fragment (residues 333–457), and similarly a second set of primers (CTTCCAAGGCCATAGCCCGACCAGCAAA, CGGGCTATGGCCTTGGAAGTACAGGTTTTC) were used to subclone the CTR-C fragment (residues 458–611).

Freshly transformed *E. coli* T7 Express *lysY* (New England Biolabs) were first grown overnight in 10 mL of lysogeny broth (LB) with 50 µg/ml Ampicillin, then transferred to 500 mL cultures at 37°C in M9 minimal medium containing 1 g/L [¹⁵N]NH₄Cl and 2 g/L [¹³C]glucose. At an OD<sub>260nm</sub> of 0.6, protein expression was induced with a final concentration of 0.5 mM isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) followed by overnight growth at 20°C and harvesting the cells by centrifugation. For CTR and CTR-N, the bacteria were resuspended in a lysis buffer consisting of 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.8), 250 mM KCl, 20 mM imidazole, 1 mg/mL lysozyme, 1 mM PMSF, 1% of Triton X-100, 2 mM β-mercaptoethanol, and one protease inhibitor cocktail tablet (Roche). Following sonication on ice (10 min at 40% power, alternating 50s of sonication and 60s of pause), the sample was centrifuged at 40000 x g for 40 min at 4°C to remove cellular debris. The supernatant was filtered with a 0.7 µm glass Microfilter GF/F (GE Healthcare Life Sciences Whatman) and added to 1 mL NUVIA Ni²⁺ affinity chromatography resin (Bio-Rad) in a plastic column, washed first with five column volumes of binding buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.8), 250 mM KCl, 20 mM imidazole, 2 mM β-mercaptoethanol), then three column volumes with a higher salt concentration (800 mM of KCl), and finally five column volumes with increased imidazole concentration (30 mM). The protein was eluted with a buffer containing 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.8), 250 mM KCl, 500 mM imidazole, 2 mM β-mercaptoethanol. Removal of the N-terminal His<sub>6</sub> tag was performed by the addition of TEV protease (15 µg/mg protein) during a dialysis step against 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.8), 250 mM KCl, 5 mM β-mercaptoethanol. Dialysis of the CTR-N sample included 0.5 M urea. For CTR-C, the bacteria pellet was resuspended in a buffer containing 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 500 mM NaCl, 5% glycerol, 5 mM imidazole and 1 mg/mL lysozyme prior to a sonication and lysate preparation similar to the other samples. After loading the CTR-C lysate onto the same affinity chromatography resin as above, the wash step this time included 10 column volumes of the resuspension buffer, then five column volumes with an increase to 25 mM imidazole, and finally elution a further increase to 500 mM imidazole. Removal of the N-terminal His<sub>6</sub> tag was performed by overnight digestion with TEV protease (15 µg/mg protein) at 4°C, following a return to the low imidazole buffer with the use of a PD10 column (Cytiva). For all samples, the protease, His-tag and remaining uncleaved protein were removed by a second Ni²⁺affinity chromatography step. All protein variants were also further purified with anion exchange chromatography (EnrichQ, Bio-rad; HiTrap CM FF,
Cytiva). The CTR sample was further purified with reverse-phase HPLC on a C18 column (ReproSil Gold 200) followed by lyophilization. Protein concentration was measured using absorbance at 280 nm with protein extinction coefficients obtained using the ProtParam tool (http://web.expasy.org/protparam): 19480 M⁻¹ cm⁻¹ (CTR), 5500 M⁻¹ cm⁻¹ (CTR-N), and 13980 M⁻¹ cm⁻¹ (CTR-C).

The final samples of uniformly ¹³C,¹⁵N-labeled eIF4B constructs were prepared in a buffer of 20 mM sodium phosphate (pH 7.0), 150 mM NaCl, 2 mM dithithreitol (DTT), with 10% (v/v) D₂O added for the lock. NMR samples contained 170 µL in a 3mm NMR tube, and assignment spectra were collected at 293 K on a Bruker Avance 700 MHz spectrometer with a triple-resonance gradient room-temperature probe. NMR data were processed by using NMRPipe/NMRDraw software (Delaglio et al. 1995) and NMR spectra were visualized and analyzed using Sparky (T. D. Goddard & D. G. Kneller, University of California, San Francisco, USA).

The backbone ¹HN, ¹Hα, ¹³C', ¹³Cα, ¹³Cβ, and ¹⁵NH resonance assignments for the eIF4B 333–457 and 458–611 constructs were assigned using the data from two-dimensional (2D) ¹H,¹⁵N-HSQC spectra and three-dimensional (3D) HNCO, HN(CA)CO, HNCA, HNCACB, CBCA(CO)NH, HA(CACO)NH, HNHA spectra. Sequential assignment was assisted by the use of 3D H(NCOCA)NNH and 3D (H)N(COCA)NNH spectra. The use of 3D HACAN and 3D HACA(CO)N spectra were essential for validating the connection to residues N-terminal to proline and for sequential proline stretches. Using the above assignments as a guide, the backbone resonance assignments for the eIF4B 333–611 construct was assigned using the data from a two-dimensional (2D) ¹H,¹⁵N-HSQC spectrum and three-dimensional (3D) HNCO, HN(CA)CO, HNCA, HNCACB, CBCA(CO)NH, HA(CACO)NH, HNHA, (H)N(COCA)NNH, HACAN and HACA(CO)N spectra.

## Extent of assignment and data deposition

Based on an initial ¹H,¹⁵N-HSQC spectrum acquired for the complete C-terminal region of human eIF4B (eIF4B-CTR, residues 333–611), it was evident that the backbone amide ¹HN chemical shift values were restricted to 8.0-8.5 ppm (Fig. 1A), and thus the construct was predominantly disordered. We therefore decided to simplify the backbone assignment process by splitting this region into two parts: CTR-N (residues 333–457), and CTR-C (residues 458–611). The ¹H,¹⁵N-HSQC spectra of CTR-N (blue spectrum, Fig. 1A) and CTR-C (red spectrum, Fig. 1A) together display an almost perfect overlap with the spectrum of the complete CTR. Using the collected 2D and 3D spectra, we obtained near complete protein backbone ¹HN, ¹Hα, ¹³Cα, ¹³Cβ, ¹³C' and ¹⁵N assignments for eIF4B-CTR-N and eIF4B-CTR-C. For CTR-N, the first two residues (*Gly*-Cys-) that remain after removal of the His6-tag are not observed in the NMR spectra, however the remaining nuclei have an assignment completeness of 97% (¹HN), 99% (¹Hα), 99% (¹³Cα), 97% (¹³Cβ), 98% (¹³C') and 98% (¹⁵N). In CTR-N, it is the first three residues (*Gly*-His458-Ser459-) that precede Pro460 that are not observed. The remaining nuclei have an assignment completeness of 99% (¹HN), 99% (¹Hα), 100% (¹³Cα), 96% (¹³Cβ), 97% (¹³C') and 100% (¹⁵N). Panels B to F in Fig. 1 show the annotated ¹H,¹⁵N-HSQC for backbone amides from CTR-N and CTR-C.
Following the protein backbone chemical shift assignment of CTR-N and CTR-C, we were able to mostly
complete the assignment of the full CTR. Due to overlap, these assignments correspond only to the ¹HN,
¹³Cᵃ, ¹³C', and ¹⁵N nuclei. Except for the region bridging the two smaller constructs, the assignments are
essentially the same as for CTR-N and CTR-C. As expected, the largest difference is for Cys457, which is
the last residue in CTR-N (Fig. 1E; 7.88 ppm/123.2 ppm), but in CTR is found at 8.36 ppm/119.5 ppm.
Other differences for this CTR region in the ¹H,¹⁵N-HSQC include Asn452 (Fig. 1E), Lys453 (Fig. 1F),
Glu454 (Fig. 1E), Asp456 (Fig. 1F), Thr461 (Fig. 1C), and Lys463 (Fig. 1D). Assignment completeness for
backbone nuclei within the entire CTR construct is 96% (¹HN), 96% (¹³Cᵃ), 94% (¹³C'), and 96% (¹⁵N).
Missing residues correspond to amide peaks that were noticeably broadened already in the smaller
constructs, in particular within the segment from Ser430 to Asn436, as well as several residues before
prolines or within proline-rich regions.

The ¹H, ¹³C and ¹⁵N NMR chemical shift data have been deposited in the Biological Magnetic Resonance Data Bank (https://bmrb.io/) under accession codes 51952, 51953 and 51957, for human eIF4B CTR-N, CTR-C and CTR, respectively.

Chemical shift analysis

The initial ¹H,¹⁵N-HSQC spectrum already suggested that the eIF4B-CTR is mainly disordered. To gain further insight, we looked for the presence of any secondary structure elements based on the chemical shift values. Secondary chemical shifts were first calculated using the observed ¹³Cᵃ values in comparison to values predicted for a random coil (Tamiola et al. 2010). We found a region from Thr369 to Gln390 with a stretch of Δδ ¹³Cᵃ greater than 1 ppm, consistent with an α-helix segment (Fig. 2A). There are additional regions with smaller, but still positive, Δδ ¹³Cᵃ values that could also indicate a degree of helical propensity. In the region corresponding to CTR-C, there are only two residues with Δδ ¹³Cᵃ values above 1 ppm (Fig. 2A). These two residues are the only glycines that precede a proline in the eIF4B-CTR, and thus might be either related to a local favored conformation, or possibly an error in the predicted random coil ¹³Cᵃ value. In a second approach, we used TALOS-N (Shen and Bax 2013) to analyze the full list of assigned chemical shifts (Fig. 2B). Once again we identified a single helical segment with high confidence, located in the same position indicated by the Δδ ¹³Cᵃ values. There is also high confidence that the majority of eIF4B-CTR corresponds to a disordered coil. In contrast, the two smaller regions of secondary structure predicted by TALOS-N have very low confidence scores.

The primary helical segment that we have identified from Thr369 to Gln390 is of interest, since it is fully
located within the 367-423 amino acid region found to bind RNA *in vitro* (Méthot et al. 1994). The stretch
of basic residues from 434-444, also proposed to interact with RNA (Méthot et al. 1994) (Naranda et al.
1994), furthermore displays some helical character in the Δδ ¹³Cᵃ analysis (Fig. 2A). In future
experiments, the chemical shift assignments will allow for a precise characterization of the interaction of
RNA to specific residues in the eIF4B CTR. It will also be possible to look into residues involved in binding
other translation initiation factors, and the residue-specific consequence of post-translational
modifications such as phosphorylation on Ser406 and Ser422.

**Declarations**

**Ethics approval and consent to participate**

Not applicable.

**Consent for publication**

All authors have approved the submission of the manuscript.

**Availability of data and material**

The assignments have been deposited to the BMRB under accession codes 51952, 51953 and 51957.

**Competing interests**

The authors declare that they have no competing conflict of interest.

**Funding**

This work was supported by grants from the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (AJE20171239128 to MA), Junior Chair IdEx Univ. Bordeaux (OPE-2018-0405 to MA), ANR JCJC (DISTINCT: ANR-20-CE11-0007 to MA), and recurrent funds from the French National Institute of Medical Research (Inserm; MA, CDM).

**Authors' contributions**

SR created the plasmids. SR, VT and CABT expressed and purified the protein samples. CDM collected and processed the NMR data. SM, CABT and CDM analyzed the NMR data. MA and CDM directed the project and wrote the manuscript.

**Acknowledgements**

The authors would like to thank Estelle Morvan, Axelle Grélard, and the IECB biophysical and structural
chemistry facility (CNRS UAR3033, Inserm US001, Univ. Bordeaux), for NMR support and access to the
700 MHz spectrometer. We thank Jean-Michel Blanc and the IECB biochemistry facility for assisting the
preparation of the initial eIF4B CTR plasmid.

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## Figures
<figure><img src="image_1.png" /><figcaption>Figure 1</figcaption></figure>

Annotated 2D ¹H,¹⁵N-HSQC spectra for C-terminal constructs of human eIF4B. Spectra were recorded at 293 K at a field strength of 700 MHz, in a buffer of 20 mM sodium phosphate, 150 mM NaCl (pH 7.0), 2 mM DTT and 10% D₂O. (A) ¹H,¹⁵N-HSQC of 150 µM [¹³C,¹⁵N]eIF4B-CTR. Left, nearly all backbone amide crosspeaks fall within the range of 8.0-8.5 ppm. Right, the same CTR spectrum but overlaid with ¹H,¹⁵N-HSQC of 460 µM [¹³C,¹⁵N]eIF4B-CTR-N (blue) and 668 µM [¹³C,¹⁵N]eIF4B-CTR-C (red). The backbone amide crosspeak for Ala513 is labeled. (B-F) Closeup segments of the overlaid spectra in (A) showing annotated backbone amide crosspeaks with the residue name (single amino acid letter code) and number. Crosspeak positions with significant line-broadening are indicated within a dotted square.
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>Figure 2</figcaption></figure>

Secondary structure prediction for the C-terminal region of human eIF4B. (A) Secondary chemical shift values (Δδ) for ¹³Cª in both the CTR-N and CTR-C regions of eIF4B, using the random coil values calculated by the online nclDP server (Tamiola et al. 2010). A single helical region is predicted from residue Thr369 to Gln390, with some additional regions of possible helical preference. There are two anomalous Δδ ¹³Cª values in the CTR-C region arising from glycines that precede a proline. (B) Secondary structure prediction as determined by TALOS-N (Shen and Bax 2013). The majority of the CTR is predicted to be disordered (coil) with a single helical region predicted with high confidence. There are very low confidence scores for the two small additional structure elements.