Structural and mechanistic insights provided by single particle cryo-EM analysis of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3Kα)

Recent cryo-electron microscopic (cryo-EM) investigations have succeeded in the analysis of various structural conformations and functional states of PI3Kα, a dimer consisting of the catalytic subunit p110α and the regulatory subunit p85α of class IA of phosphoinositide 3-kinase. High resolution structures have been obtained of the unliganded and of BYL-719-bound PI3Kα. The latter provides information on excessively flexible domains of p85α that are then further analyzed with nanobodies and CXMS (chemical cross-linking, digestion and mass spectrometry). Analysis of p110α helical and kinase domain mutations reveals mutant-specific features that can be linked to the gain of function in enzymatic and signaling activities.