Skip to main content
PMC home page
The EMBO Journal logoLink to The EMBO Journal
. 1985 Jan;4(1):57–63. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb02317.x

Protein-chemical characterization of NF-H, the largest mammalian neurofilament component; intermediate filament-type sequences followed by a unique carboxy-terminal extension

N Geisler 1, S Fischer 1, J Vandekerckhove 1, J Van Damme 1, U Plessmann 1, K Weber 1
PMCID: PMC554151  PMID: 16453600

Abstract

NF-H has the highest mol. wt. of the three mammalian neurofilament components (NF-L, NF-M, NF-H). In spite of its unusually large mol. wt., estimated to be 200 K by gel electrophoresis, NF-H contains sequences which identify it as an integral intermediate filament (IF) protein in its amino-terminal region. We have isolated and partially characterized a basic, non-α-helical segment located at the amino-terminal end with properties similar to headpieces of other non-epithelial IF proteins. The highly α-helical 40-K fragment excised by chymotrypsin is now identified by the amino acid sequence of a 17-K fragment. This sequence can be unambiguously aligned with the rod region of other IF proteins and covers about half of the presumptive coiled-coil arrays. NF-H and NF-M show 45% sequence identity in this region. The extra mass of NF-H in comparison with most other IF proteins arises from a carboxy-terminal extension thought to be responsible for inter-neurofilament cross-bridges in axons. This autonomous domain has a unique amino acid composition characterized by a high content of proline, alanine and particularly of lysine and glutamic acid. The NF-H tailpiece extension also carries a large number of serine phosphates, which are not evenly distributed, but are restricted to the amino-terminal part. Having now delineated the intermediate filament-type sequences for all three neurofilament proteins it seems very likely that the three components interact via coiled-coil interactions. They all carry unique carboxy-terminal extensions which increase in length from NF-L to NF-H and seem to extend from the filament wall.

Keywords: axons, coiled-coils, intermediate filaments, keratin, neurofilaments

Full text

PDF
57

Images in this article

57Fig. 1.
on p.57

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Chin T. K., Eagles P. A., Maggs A. The proteolytic digestion of ox neurofilaments with trypsin and alpha-chymotrypsin. Biochem J. 1983 Nov 1;215(2):239–252. doi: 10.1042/bj2150239. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Debus E., Flügge G., Weber K., Osborn M. A monoclonal antibody specific for the 200 K polypeptide of the neurofilament triplet. EMBO J. 1982;1(1):41–45. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1982.tb01121.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Dowling L. M., Parry D. A., Sparrow L. G. Structural homology between hard alpha-keratin and the intermediate filament proteins desmin and vimentin. Biosci Rep. 1983 Jan;3(1):73–78. doi: 10.1007/BF01121573. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Franke W. W., Schiller D. L., Hatzfeld M., Winter S. Protein complexes of intermediate-sized filaments: melting of cytokeratin complexes in urea reveals different polypeptide separation characteristics. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Dec;80(23):7113–7117. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.23.7113. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Gardner E. E., Dahl D., Bignami A. Formation of 10-nanometer filaments from the 150K-dalton neurofilament protein in vitro. J Neurosci Res. 1984;11(2):145–155. doi: 10.1002/jnr.490110204. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Geisler N., Fischer S., Vandekerckhove J., Plessmann U., Weber K. Hybrid character of a large neurofilament protein (NF-M): intermediate filament type sequence followed by a long and acidic carboxy-terminal extension. EMBO J. 1984 Nov;3(11):2701–2706. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1984.tb02196.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Geisler N., Kaufmann E., Fischer S., Plessmann U., Weber K. Neurofilament architecture combines structural principles of intermediate filaments with carboxy-terminal extensions increasing in size between triplet proteins. EMBO J. 1983;2(8):1295–1302. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1983.tb01584.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Geisler N., Kaufmann E., Weber K. Proteinchemical characterization of three structurally distinct domains along the protofilament unit of desmin 10 nm filaments. Cell. 1982 Aug;30(1):277–286. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(82)90033-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Geisler N., Plessmann U., Weber K. Amino acid sequence characterization of mammalian vimentin, the mesenchymal intermediate filament protein. FEBS Lett. 1983 Oct 31;163(1):22–24. doi: 10.1016/0014-5793(83)81153-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Geisler N., Plessmann U., Weber K. Related amino acid sequences in neurofilaments and non-neural intermediate filaments. Nature. 1982 Apr 1;296(5856):448–450. doi: 10.1038/296448a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Geisler N., Weber K. Amino acid sequence data on glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFA); implications for the subdivision of intermediate filaments into epithelial and non-epithelial members. EMBO J. 1983;2(11):2059–2063. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1983.tb01700.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Geisler N., Weber K. Comparison of the proteins of two immunologically distinct intermediate-sized filaments by amino acid sequence analysis: desmin and vimentin. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Jul;78(7):4120–4123. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.7.4120. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Geisler N., Weber K. Self-assembly in Vitro of the 68,000 molecular weight component of the mammalian neurofilament triplet proteins into intermediate-sized filaments. J Mol Biol. 1981 Sep 25;151(3):565–571. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(81)90011-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Geisler N., Weber K. The amino acid sequence of chicken muscle desmin provides a common structural model for intermediate filament proteins. EMBO J. 1982;1(12):1649–1656. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1982.tb01368.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Hanukoglu I., Fuchs E. The cDNA sequence of a Type II cytoskeletal keratin reveals constant and variable structural domains among keratins. Cell. 1983 Jul;33(3):915–924. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90034-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Hanukoglu I., Fuchs E. The cDNA sequence of a human epidermal keratin: divergence of sequence but conservation of structure among intermediate filament proteins. Cell. 1982 Nov;31(1):243–252. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(82)90424-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Henderson D., Geisler N., Weber K. A periodic ultrastructure in intermediate filaments. J Mol Biol. 1982 Feb 25;155(2):173–176. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(82)90444-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Hirokawa N., Glicksman M. A., Willard M. B. Organization of mammalian neurofilament polypeptides within the neuronal cytoskeleton. J Cell Biol. 1984 Apr;98(4):1523–1536. doi: 10.1083/jcb.98.4.1523. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Jacobson G. R., Schaffer M. H., Stark G. R., Vanaman T. C. Specific chemical cleavage in high yield at the amino peptide bonds of cysteine and cystine residues. J Biol Chem. 1973 Oct 10;248(19):6583–6591. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Julien J. P., Mushynski W. E. Multiple phosphorylation sites in mammalian neurofilament polypeptides. J Biol Chem. 1982 Sep 10;257(17):10467–10470. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Julien J. P., Mushynski W. E. The distribution of phosphorylation sites among identified proteolytic fragments of mammalian neurofilaments. J Biol Chem. 1983 Mar 25;258(6):4019–4025. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Kaufmann E., Geisler N., Weber K. SDS-PAGE strongly overestimates the molecular masses of the neurofilament proteins. FEBS Lett. 1984 May 7;170(1):81–84. doi: 10.1016/0014-5793(84)81373-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Lewis S. A., Balcarek J. M., Krek V., Shelanski M., Cowan N. J. Sequence of a cDNA clone encoding mouse glial fibrillary acidic protein: structural conservation of intermediate filaments. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 May;81(9):2743–2746. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.9.2743. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Liem R. K., Hutchison S. B. Purification of individual components of the neurofilament triplet: filament assembly from the 70 000-dalton subunit. Biochemistry. 1982 Jun 22;21(13):3221–3226. doi: 10.1021/bi00256a029. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Milam L., Erickson H. P. Visualization of a 21-nm axial periodicity in shadowed keratin filaments and neurofilaments. J Cell Biol. 1982 Sep;94(3):592–596. doi: 10.1083/jcb.94.3.592. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Moll R., Franke W. W., Schiller D. L., Geiger B., Krepler R. The catalog of human cytokeratins: patterns of expression in normal epithelia, tumors and cultured cells. Cell. 1982 Nov;31(1):11–24. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(82)90400-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Quax-Jeuken Y. E., Quax W. J., Bloemendal H. Primary and secondary structure of hamster vimentin predicted from the nucleotide sequence. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Jun;80(12):3548–3552. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.12.3548. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Quax W., Egberts W. V., Hendriks W., Quax-Jeuken Y., Bloemendal H. The structure of the vimentin gene. Cell. 1983 Nov;35(1):215–223. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90224-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Quinlan R. A., Cohlberg J. A., Schiller D. L., Hatzfeld M., Franke W. W. Heterotypic tetramer (A2D2) complexes of non-epidermal keratins isolated from cytoskeletons of rat hepatocytes and hepatoma cells. J Mol Biol. 1984 Sep 15;178(2):365–388. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(84)90149-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Sharp G. A., Shaw G., Weber K. Immunoelectronmicroscopical localization of the three neurofilament triplet proteins along neurofilaments of cultured dorsal root ganglion neurones. Exp Cell Res. 1982 Feb;137(2):403–413. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(82)90042-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Shaw G., Osborn M., Weber K. An immunofluorescence microscopical study of the neurofilament triplet proteins, vimentin and glial fibrillary acidic protein within the adult rat brain. Eur J Cell Biol. 1981 Dec;26(1):68–82. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Shaw G., Weber K. Differential expression of neurofilament triplet proteins in brain development. Nature. 1982 Jul 15;298(5871):277–279. doi: 10.1038/298277a0. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Steinert P. M., Idler W. W., Goldman R. D. Intermediate filaments of baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cells and bovine epidermal keratinocytes have similar ultrastructures and subunit domain structures. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Aug;77(8):4534–4538. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.8.4534. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Steinert P. M., Rice R. H., Roop D. R., Trus B. L., Steven A. C. Complete amino acid sequence of a mouse epidermal keratin subunit and implications for the structure of intermediate filaments. Nature. 1983 Apr 28;302(5911):794–800. doi: 10.1038/302794a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  35. Steven A. C., Hainfeld J. F., Trus B. L., Wall J. S., Steinert P. M. Epidermal keratin filaments assembled in vitro have masses-per-unit-length that scale according to average subunit mass: structural basis for homologous packing of subunits in intermediate filaments. J Cell Biol. 1983 Dec;97(6):1939–1944. doi: 10.1083/jcb.97.6.1939. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  36. Traub P., Vorgias C. E. Involvement of the N-terminal polypeptide of vimentin in the formation of intermediate filaments. J Cell Sci. 1983 Sep;63:43–67. doi: 10.1242/jcs.63.1.43. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  37. Weber K., Shaw G., Osborn M., Debus E., Geisler N. Neurofilaments, a subclass of intermediate filaments: structure and expression. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1983;48(Pt 2):717–729. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1983.048.01.075. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  38. Willard M., Simon C. Antibody decoration of neurofilaments. J Cell Biol. 1981 May;89(2):198–205. doi: 10.1083/jcb.89.2.198. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The EMBO Journal are provided here courtesy of Nature Publishing Group

RESOURCES