Cooperative energetic effects elicited by the yeast Shwachman-Diamond syndrome protein (Sdo1) and guanine nucleotides modulate the complex conformational landscape of the elongation factor-like 1 (Efl1) GTPase.

One of the final maturation steps of the large ribosomal subunit requires the joint action of the elongation factor-like 1 (human EFL1, yeast Efl1) GTPase and the Shwachman-Diamond syndrome protein (human SBDS, yeast Sdo1) to release the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 6 (human eIF6, yeast Tif6) and allow the assembly of mature ribosomes. EFL1 function is driven by conformational changes. However, the nature of such conformational changes or the mechanism by which they are prompted are still largely unknown. In previous studies, it has been established that this GTPase interacts with its cofactor in solution in an inverted orientation with respect to the binding mode derived from 60S ribosome subunit cryo-EM data. To shed new light on this conundrum, we characterized calorimetrically the energetic basis describing the recognition of Efl1 to GT(D)P, Sdo1 and their intercommunication in solution. A structural-based analysis of the binding signatures indicates that Efl1 has a large structural flexibility. The mutual effects of Sdo1 and nucleotides on Efl1 modulate in a very specific and robust way the complex conformational landscape of Efl1, resembling the behavior observed with other GTPases and their cofactors.