Assembly of MHC class I molecules analyzed in vitro.

Journal article

Recent evidence suggests that peptide ligands take part in the assembly of class I molecules in living cells. We now describe a simple system for studying class I assembly in vitro. Detergent extracts of the mutant cells RMA-S and .174, in which class I assembly does not occur spontaneously, will support assembly in vitro when specific peptides are added. Peptides stabilize a conformational change in the class I heavy chain and association with beta 2-microglobulin, at concentrations approximately 100-fold lower than required in "peptide feeding" experiments with whole cells. We show that peptides bind class I molecules during assembly and demonstrate that the conformational change induced in the heavy chain is influenced by the concentrations of both peptide and beta 2-microglobulin.

Authors: Townsend, A; Elliott, T; Cerundolo, V; Foster, L; Barber, B

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Cell
• Volume: 62
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 285-295
• Publication date: 1990-07-01
• DOI: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90366-m
• EISSN: 1097-4172
• ISSN: 0092-8674
• Language: English
• Keywords: Peptides; Kinetics; Macromolecular Substances; beta 2-Microglobulin; Cell-Free System; Molecular Sequence Data; Protein Conformation; Mice; Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; Humans; Amino Acid Sequence; Animals