1lr1: Difference between revisions

[[Image:1lr1.gif|left|200px]]

'''Solution Structure of the Oligomerization Domain of the Bacterial Chromatin-Structuring Protein H-NS'''

H-NS plays a role in condensing DNA in the bacterial nucleoid. This 136 amino acid protein comprises two functional domains separated by a flexible linker. High order structures formed by the N-terminal oligomerization domain (residues 1-89) constitute the basis of a protein scaffold that binds DNA via the C-terminal domain. Deletion of residues 57-89 or 64-89 of the oligomerization domain precludes high order structure formation, yielding a discrete dimer. This dimerization event represents the initial event in the formation of high order structure. The dimers thus constitute the basic building block of the protein scaffold. The three-dimensional solution structure of one of these units (residues 1-57) has been determined. Activity of these structural units is demonstrated by a dominant negative effect on high order structure formation on addition to the full length protein. Truncated and site-directed mutant forms of the N-terminal domain of H-NS reveal how the dimeric unit self-associates in a head-to-tail manner and demonstrate the importance of secondary structure in this interaction to form high order structures. A model is presented for the structural basis for DNA packaging in bacterial cells.

1LR1 is a [[Single protein]] structure of sequence from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli Escherichia coli]. Full crystallographic information is available from [http://oca.weizmann.ac.il/oca-bin/ocashort?id=1LR1 OCA].  

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