Structural highlights
FunctionDBHA_ECOLI Histone-like DNA-binding protein which is capable of wrapping DNA to stabilize it, and thus to prevent its denaturation under extreme environmental conditions. Evolutionary Conservation Check, as determined by ConSurfDB. You may read the explanation of the method and the full data available from ConSurf. Publication Abstract from PubMedWe determined the crystal structure of the Escherichia coli nucleoid-associated HUalphabeta protein by x-ray diffraction and observed that the heterodimers form multimers with octameric units in three potential arrangements, which may serve specialized roles in different DNA transaction reactions. It is of special importance that one of the structures forms spiral filaments with left-handed rotations. A negatively superhelical DNA can be modeled to wrap around this left-handed HUalphabeta multimer. Whereas the wild-type HU generated negative DNA supercoiling in vitro, an engineered heterodimer with an altered amino acid residue critical for the formation of the left-handed spiral protein in the crystal was defective in the process, thus providing the structural explanation for the classical property of HU to restrain negative supercoils in DNA. Spiral structure of Escherichia coli HUalphabeta provides foundation for DNA supercoiling.,Guo F, Adhya S Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Mar 13;104(11):4309-14. Epub 2007 Mar 5. PMID:17360520[1] From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. References | ||||||||||||||||||||
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