Hyun Kyu Song
Korea University · 生化学・遺伝学・分子生物学
研究室紹介
Professor Hyun Kyu Song's research lab specializes in structural biology and biochemistry, focusing on the molecular mechanisms of protein degradation, autophagy, and metallochaperone systems in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The lab investigates ATP-dependent protease complexes such as HslVU and ClpP, elucidating their activation mechanisms and substrate processing. It also explores key regulatory nodes in autophagy, including the p62/SQSTM1 adapter and ATG12–ATG5 interactions, with a particular emphasis on substrate recognition and cellular signaling integration. Additionally, the lab examines metal ion delivery systems, such as UreE, to understand virulence factor activation in pathogenic bacteria.
Research Overview
Research Output Trend
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Selected Papers
15HslVU is an ATP-dependent prokaryotic protease complex. Despite detailed crystal and molecular structure determinations of free HslV and HslU, the mechanism of ATP-dependent peptide and protein hydrolysis remained unclear, mainly because the productive complex of HslV and HslU could not be unambiguously identified from the crystal data. In the crystalline complex, the I domains of HslU interact with HslV. Observations based on electron microscopy data were interpreted in the light of the crystal
p62/SQSTM1 is the key autophagy adapter protein and the hub of multi-cellular signaling. It was recently reported that autophagy and N-end rule pathways are linked via p62. However, the exact recognition mode of degrading substrates and regulation of p62 in the autophagic pathway remain unknown. Here, we present the complex structures between the ZZ-domain of p62 and various type-1 and type-2 N-degrons. The binding mode employed in the interaction of the ZZ-domain with N-degrons differs from tha
UreE is proposed to be a metallochaperone that delivers nickel ions to urease during activation of this bacterial virulence factor. Wild-type Klebsiella aerogenes UreE binds approximately six nickel ions per homodimer, whereas H144*UreE (a functional C-terminal truncated variant) was previously reported to bind two. We determined the structure of H144*UreE by multi-wavelength anomalous diffraction and refined it to 1.5 A resolution. The present structure reveals an Hsp40-like peptide-binding dom
Autophagy is a bulky catabolic process that responds to nutrient homeostasis and extracellular stress signals and is a conserved mechanism in all eukaryotes. When autophagy is induced, cellular components are sequestered within an autophagosome and finally degraded by subsequent fusion with a lysosome. During this process, the ATG12-ATG5 conjugate requires 2 different binding partners, ATG16L1 for autophagosome elongation and TECPR1 for lysosomal fusion. In our current study, we describe the cry
ClpP is a cylindrical protease that is tightly regulated by Clp-ATPases. The activation mechanism of ClpP using acyldepsipeptide antibiotics as mimics of natural activators showed enlargement of the axial entrance pore for easier processing of incoming substrates. However, the elimination of degradation products from inside the ClpP chamber remains unclear since there is no exit pore for releasing these products in all determined ClpP structures. Here we report a new crystal structure of ClpP fr
: HORMA domain of Atg13 from Schizosaccharomyces pombe; SQSTM1/p62: sequestosome 1; ULK1: unc51-like autophagy activating kinase 1; UVRAG: UV radiation resistance associated; WIPI1: WD repeat domain: phosphoinositide interacting 1; ZFYVE1/DFCP1: zinc finger FYVE-type containing 1.