3cz6
Crystal Structure of the Rap1 C-terminus
Structural highlights
FunctionRAP1_YEAST Essential regulatory protein in yeast whose DNA-binding sites are found at three types of chromosomal elements: promoters, silencers, and telomeres. RAP1 is also involved in the regulation of telomere structure, where its binding sites are found within the terminal poly[C(1-3)A] sequences. The opposite regulatory functions of RAP1 are not intrinsic to its binding sites but, instead, result from interactions with different factors at promoters and silencers. RAP1 associates with SIR3 and SIR4 proteins to form a DNA-binding complex that initiates the repression at the HM loci and telomeres. May also target the binding of RIF1 and RIF2 to silencers and telomeres. Forms with GCR1 a transcriptional activation complex that is required for expression of glycolytic and ribosomal gene. 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 PubMedThe yeast Rap1 protein plays an important role in transcriptional silencing and in telomere length homeostasis. Rap1 mediates silencing at the HM loci and at telomeres by recruiting the Sir3 and Sir4 proteins to chromatin via a Rap1 C-terminal domain, which also recruits the telomere length regulators, Rif1 and Rif2. We report the 1.85 A resolution crystal structure of the Rap1 C-terminus, which adopts an all-helical fold with no structural homologues. The structure was used to engineer surface mutations in Rap1, and the effects of these mutations on silencing and telomere length regulation were assayed in vivo. Our surprising finding was that there is no overlap between mutations affecting mating-type and telomeric silencing, suggesting that Rap1 plays distinct roles in silencing at the silent mating-type loci and telomeres. We also found novel Rap1 phenotypes and new separation-of-function mutants, which provide new tools for studying Rap1 function. Yeast two-hybrid studies were used to determine how specific mutations affect recruitment of Sir3, Rif1, and Rif2. A comparison of the yeast two-hybrid and functional data reveals patterns of protein interactions that correlate with each Rap1 phenotype. We find that Sir3 interactions are important for telomeric silencing, but not mating type silencing, and that Rif1 and Rif2 interactions are important in different subsets of telomeric length mutants. Our results show that the role of Rap1 in silencing differs between the HM loci and the telomeres and offer insight into the interplay between HM silencing, telomeric silencing, and telomere length regulation. These findings suggest a model in which competition and multiple recruitment events modulate silencing and telomere length regulation. Structural and functional studies of the Rap1 C-terminus reveal novel separation-of-function mutants.,Feeser EA, Wolberger C J Mol Biol. 2008 Jul 11;380(3):520-31. Epub 2008 May 17. PMID:18538788[1] From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. References
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