Modification of C-Terminus Provides New Insights into the Mechanism of ?-Synuclein Aggregation (Biophysical Journal)

Aggregation of neuronal protein ?-synuclein leads to the formation of amyloid fibrils, which are associated with the development of Parkinson`s disease. The mechanism of ?-synuclein pathology is not fully understood and is a subject of active research in the field. To tackle this problem, the fusions of fluorescent proteins to ?-synuclein C-terminus are often used in cellular and animal studies. The effects induced by such ?-synuclein sequence extension on ?-synuclein aggregation propensity are, however, not systematically examined despite the evidence that the negatively charged C-terminus plays a critical role in the regulation of ?-synuclein aggregation.