Allosterism in membrane binding: a common motif of the annexins?

Annexins are a family of proteins generally described as Ca(2+)-dependent for phospholipid binding. Yet, annexins have a wide variety of binding behaviors and conformational states, some of which are lipid-dependent and Ca(2+)-independent. We present a model that captures the cation and phospholipid binding behavior of the highly conserved core of the annexins. Experimental data for annexins A4 and A5, which have short N-termini, were globally modeled to gain an understanding of how the lipid-binding affinity of the conserved protein core is modulated. Analysis of the binding behavior was achieved through use of the lanthanide Tb(3+) as a Ca(2+) analogue. Binding isotherms were determined experimentally from the quenching of the intrinsic fluorescence of annexins A4 and A5 by Tb(3+) in the presence or absence of membranes. In the presence of lipid, the affinity of annexin for cation increases, and the binding isotherms change from hyperbolic to weakly sigmoidal. This behavior was modeled by isotherms derived from microscopic binding partition functions. The change from hyperbolic to sigmoidal binding occurs because of an allosteric transition from the annexin solution state to its membrane-associated state. Protein binding to lipid bilayers renders cation binding by annexins cooperative. The two annexin states denote two affinities of the protein for cation, one in the absence and another in the presence of membrane. In the framework of this model, we discuss membrane binding as well as the influence of the N-terminus in modifying the annexin cation-binding affinity by changing the probability of the protein to undergo the postulated two-state transition.