Structural highlights
Function[RECR_BPP1] Catalyzes site-specific recombination between two 34-base-pair LOXP sites. Its role is to maintain the phage genome as a monomeric unit-copy plasmid in the lysogenic state. 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 crystal structure of a novel Cre-Lox synapse was solved using phases from multiple isomorphous replacement and anomalous scattering, and refined to 2.05 A resolution. In this complex, a symmetric protein trimer is bound to a Y-shaped three-way DNA junction, a marked departure from the pseudo-4-fold symmetrical tetramer associated with Cre-mediated LoxP recombination. The three-way DNA junction was accommodated by a simple kink without significant distortion of the adjoining DNA duplexes. Although the mean angle between DNA arms in the Y and X structures was similar, adjacent Cre trimer subunits rotated 29 degrees relative to those in the tetramers. This rotation was accommodated at the protein-protein and DNA-DNA interfaces by interactions that are "quasi-equivalent" to those in the tetramer, analogous to packing differences of chemically identical viral subunits at non-equivalent positions in icosahedral capsids. This structural quasi-equivalence extends to function as Cre can bind to, cleave and perform strand transfer with a three-way Lox substrate. The structure explains the dual recognition of three and four-way junctions by site-specific recombinases as being due to shared structural features between the differently branched substrates and plasticity of the protein-protein interfaces. To our knowledge, this is the first direct demonstration of quasi-equivalence in both the assembly and function of an oligomeric enzyme. Quasi-equivalence in site-specific recombinase structure and function: crystal structure and activity of trimeric Cre recombinase bound to a three-way Lox DNA junction.,Woods KC, Martin SS, Chu VC, Baldwin EP J Mol Biol. 2001 Oct 12;313(1):49-69. PMID:11601846[1] From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. See AlsoReferences
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