Structural basis of adenylyl cyclase 9 activation

Abstract Adenylyl cyclase 9 (AC9) is a membrane-bound enzyme that converts ATP into cAMP. The enzyme is weakly activated by forskolin, fully activated by the G protein Gαs subunit and is autoinhibited by the AC9 C-terminus. Although our recent structural studies of the AC9-Gαs complex provided the framework for understanding AC9 autoinhibition, the conformational changes that AC9 undergoes in response to activator binding remains poorly understood. Here, we present the cryo-EM structures of AC9 in several distinct states: (i) AC9 bound to a nucleotide inhibitor MANT-GTP, (ii) bound to an artificial activator (DARPin C4) and MANT-GTP, (iii) bound to DARPin C4 and a nucleotide analogue ATPαS, (iv) bound to Gαs and MANT-GTP. The artificial activator DARPin C4 partially activates AC9 by binding at a site that overlaps with the Gαs binding site. Together with the previously observed occluded and forskolin-bound conformations, structural comparisons of AC9 in the four new conformations show that secondary structure rearrangements in the region surrounding the forskolin binding site are essential for AC9 activation. One Sentence Summary Cryo-EM reveals activator-induced conformational changes in adenylyl cyclase AC9