The solution structure of the core of mesoderm development (MESD), a chaperone for members of the LDLR-family

C. Köhler, O.M. Andersen, A. Diehl, G. Krause, P. Schmieder, H. Oschkinat

J. Struct. Funct. Genomics (2006) 7, 131-138

Mesoderm development (MESD) is a 224 amino acid mouse protein that acts as a molecular chaperone for receptors of the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) family. By recording (15)N-HSQC-NMR spectra of six different MESD constructs, we could determine a highly structured core region corresponding to residues 104-177. Here we firstly present the solution structure of this highly conserved core of MESD. It shows a four-stranded anti-parallel beta-sheet and two alpha-helices situated on one side of the sheet. Although described in the literature as structurally homologues to ferredoxins, the connectivity of secondary structure elements is different in the MESD fold. A structural comparison to entries of the PDB reveals a frequent domain with low sequence homology annotated as HMA and P-II domains in Pfam.