RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The Intrinsically Disordered Region of Coronins Fine-tunes Oligomerization and Actin Polymerization JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2022.01.19.477021 DO 10.1101/2022.01.19.477021 A1 Han, Xiao A1 Hu, Zixin A1 Surya, Wahyu A1 Ma, Qianqian A1 Zhou, Feng A1 Nordenskiöld, Lars A1 Torres, Jaume A1 Lu, Lanyuan A1 Miao, Yansong YR 2022 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/01/21/2022.01.19.477021.abstract AB Coronins are highly conserved actin-binding proteins (ABPs) in the eukaryotic kingdom for polymerizing actin cytoskeleton. The biochemical activity of coronins is primarily mediated by the structural N-terminal β-propeller and the C-terminal helical coiled-coil (CC) domains, but less is known about the function of a middle nonconserved region, the “unique region (UR)”. The coronin UR is an intrinsically disordered region (IDR). Herein, we demonstrate that the low complexity of the UR is a conserved signature of the coronin protein family, and the UR/IDR exhibits a striking evolutionary correlated pattern associated with sequence length. By analyzing the role of the IDR in coronins via coarse-grained simulations, we reveal that evolutionary selection of IDR length is coupled with the oligomerization of IDR-containing proteins (IDPs) to provide optimal functional output. By integrating biochemical and cell biology experiments and protein engineering, we found that the IDR regulates Crn1 biochemical activity, both in vivo and in vitro, by fine-tuning CC domain oligomerization and maintaining Crn1 in a tetrameric state. The IDR-guided optimization of Crn1 oligomerization is critical for Arp2/3-mediated actin polymerization.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.