Structure of full-length p53 tumor suppressor probed by chemical cross-linking and mass spectrometry

The tumor suppressor p53 presents a great challenge for 3D structural analysis due to its inherent flexibility. In this work, we gained insight into the structure of full-length wild-type human p53 in solution by chemical cross-linking/MS. This approach allowed us obtaining structural information of free wild-type p53 in solution without making use of the ultrastable quadruple p53 variant. The cross-links within one p53 monomer are in good agreement with the small-angle X-ray scattering based model of full-length p53. Our cross-linking data between different p53 molecules in the tetramer however indicate a large degree of flexibility in the C-terminal regulatory domain of full-length p53 in the absence of DNA. The cross-links suggest that the C-terminal regulatory domains are much closer to each other, resulting in a more compact arrangement of the p53 tetramer than perceived by the small-angle X-ray scattering model.