1fzp: Difference between revisions

[[Image:1fzp.gif|left|200px]]<br /><applet load="1fzp" size="350" color="white" frame="true" align="right" spinBox="true"  

Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen, the potency of which can be attributed to the regulated expression of an impressive array of virulence determinants. A key pleiotropic transcriptional regulator of these virulence factors is SarA, which is encoded by the sar (staphylococcal accessory regulator) locus. SarA was characterized initially as an activator of a second virulence regulatory locus, agr, through its interaction with a series of heptad repeats (AGTTAAG) within the agr promoter. Subsequent DNA-binding studies have revealed that SarA binds readily to multiple AT-rich sequences of variable lengths. Here we describe the crystal structure of SarA and a SarA-DNA complex at resolutions of 2.50 A and 2.95 A, respectively. SarA has a fold consisting of a four-helix core region and 'inducible regions' comprising a beta-hairpin and a carboxy-terminal loop. On binding DNA, the inducible regions undergo marked conformational changes, becoming part of extended and distorted alpha-helices, which encase the DNA. SarA recognizes an AT-rich site in which the DNA is highly overwound and adopts a D-DNA-like conformation by indirect readout. These structures thus provide insight into SarA-mediated transcription regulation.

1FZP is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_protein Single protein] structure of sequence from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staphylococcus_aureus Staphylococcus aureus] with <scene name='pdbligand=CA:'>CA</scene> as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ligand ligand]. Full crystallographic information is available from [http://oca.weizmann.ac.il/oca-bin/ocashort?id=1FZP OCA].  

[[Category: Brennan, R G.]]

[[Category: Schumacher, M A.]]

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