The molecular basis of DNA-protein recognition inferred from the structure of cro repressor

DBPboost:A method of classification of DNA-binding proteins based on improved differential evolution algorithm and feature extraction

DNA-binding proteins are a class of proteins that can interact with DNA molecules through physical and chemical interactions. Their main functions include regulating gene expression, maintaining chromosome structure and stability, and more. DNA-binding proteins play a crucial role in cellular and molecular biology, as they are essential for maintaining normal cellular physiological functions and adapting to environmental changes. The prediction of DNA-binding proteins has been a hot topic in the field of bioinformatics. The key to accurately classifying DNA-binding proteins is to find suitable feature sources and explore the information they contain. Although there are already many models for predicting DNA-binding proteins, there is still room for improvement in mining feature source information and calculation methods. In this study, we created a model called DBPboost to better identify DNA-binding proteins. The innovation of this study lies in the use of eight feature extraction methods, the improvement of the feature selection step, which involves selecting some features first and then performing feature selection again after feature fusion, and the optimization of the differential evolution algorithm in feature fusion, which improves the performance of feature fusion. The experimental results show that the prediction accuracy of the model on the UniSwiss dataset is 89.32%, and the sensitivity is 89.01%, which is better than most existing models.

MV-H-RKM: A Multiple View-Based Hypergraph Regularized Restricted Kernel Machine for Predicting DNA-Binding Proteins

DNA-binding proteins (DBPs) have a significant impact on many life activities, so identification of DBPs is a crucial issue. And it is greatly helpful to understand the mechanism of protein-DNA interactions. In traditional experimental methods, it is significant time-consuming and labor-consuming to identify DBPs. In recent years, many researchers have proposed lots of different DBP identification methods based on machine learning algorithm to overcome shortcomings mentioned above. However, most existing methods cannot get satisfactory results. In this paper, we focus on developing a new predictor of DBPs, called Multi-View Hypergraph Restricted Kernel Machines (MV-H-RKM). In this method, we extract five features from the three views of the proteins. To fuse these features, we couple them by means of the shared hidden vector. Besides, we employ the hypergraph regularization to enforce the structure consistency between original features and the hidden vector. Experimental results show that the accuracy of MV-H-RKM is 84.09% and 85.48% on PDB1075 and PDB186 data set respectively, and demonstrate that our proposed method performs better than other state-of-the-art approaches. The code is publicly available at https://github.com/ShixuanGG/MV-H-RKM.

Heterogeneity in winged helix-turn-helix and substrate DNA interactions: Insights from theory and experiments

Specific interactions between transcription factors (TFs) and substrate DNA constitute the fundamental basis of gene expression. Unlike in TFs like basic helix-loop-helix or basic leucine zippers, prediction of substrate DNA is extremely challenging for helix-turn-helix (HTH). Experimental techniques like chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with massively parallel DNA sequencing remains a viable option. We characterize the molecular basis of heterogeneity in HTH-DNA interaction using in silico tools and thence validate them experimentally. Given the profound functional diversity in HTH, we focus primarily on winged-HTH (wHTH). We consider 180 wHTH TFs, whose experimental three-dimensional structures are available in DNA bound/unbound conformations. Starting with PDB-wide scanning and curation of data, we construct a phylogenetic tree, which distributes 180 wHTH sequences under multiple sub-groups. Structure-sequence alignment followed by detailed intra/intergroup analysis, covariation studies and extensive network theory analysis help us to gain deep insight into heterogeneous wHTH-substrate DNA interactions. A central aim of this study is to find a consensus to predict the substrate DNA sequence for wHTH, amidst heterogeneity. The strength of our exhaustive theoretical investigations including molecular docking are successfully tested through experimental characterization of wHTH TF from Sulfurimonas denitrificans.

DNA-binding protein prediction based on deep transfer learning

The study of DNA binding proteins (DBPs) is of great importance in the biomedical field and plays a key role in this field. At present, many researchers are working on the prediction and detection of DBPs. Traditional DBP prediction mainly uses machine learning methods. Although these methods can obtain relatively high pre-diction accuracy, they consume large quantities of human effort and material resources. Transfer learning has certain advantages in dealing with such prediction problems. Therefore, in the present study, two features were extracted from a protein sequence, a transfer learning method was used, and two classical transfer learning algorithms were compared to transfer samples and construct data sets. In the final step, DBPs are detected by building a deep learning neural network model in a way that uses attention mechanisms.

Introduction to a special issue of Magnetic Resonance in honour of Robert Kaptein at the occasion of his 80th birthday

This publication, in honour of Robert Kaptein's 80th birthday, contains contributions from colleagues, many of whom have worked with him, and others who admire his work and have been stimulated by his research. The contributions show current research in biomolecular NMR, spin hyperpolarisation and spin chemistry, including CIDNP (chemically induced dynamic nuclear polarisation), topics to which he has contributed enormously. His proposal of the radical pair mechanism was the birth of the field of spin chemistry, and the laser CIDNP NMR experiment on a protein was a major breakthrough in hyperpolarisation research. He set milestones for biomolecular NMR by developing computational methods for protein structure determination, including restrained molecular dynamics and 3D NMR methodology. With a lac repressor headpiece, he determined one of the first protein structures determined by NMR. His studies of the lac repressor provided the first examples of detailed studies of protein nucleic acid complexes by NMR. This deepened our understanding of protein DNA recognition and led to a molecular model for protein sliding along the DNA. Furthermore, he played a leading role in establishing the cluster of NMR large-scale facilities in Europe. This editorial gives an introduction to the publication and is followed by a biography describing his contributions to magnetic resonance.

TargetDBP+: Enhancing the Performance of Identifying DNA-Binding Proteins via Weighted Convolutional Features

Protein-DNA interactions exist ubiquitously and play important roles in the life cycles of living cells. The accurate identification of DNA-binding proteins (DBPs) is one of the key steps to understand the mechanisms of protein-DNA interactions. Although many DBP identification methods have been proposed, the current performance is still unsatisfactory. In this study, a new method, called TargetDBP+, is developed to further enhance the performance of identifying DBPs. In TargetDBP+, five convolutional features are first extracted from five feature sources, i.e., amino acid one-hot matrix (AAOHM), position-specific scoring matrix (PSSM), predicted secondary structure probability matrix (PSSPM), predicted solvent accessibility probability matrix (PSAPM), and predicted probabilities of DNA-binding sites (PPDBSs); second, the five features are weightedly and serially combined using the weights of all of the elements learned by the differential evolution algorithm; and finally, the DBP identification model of TargetDBP+ is trained using the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. To evaluate the developed TargetDBP+ and compare it with other existing methods, a new gold-standard benchmark data set, called UniSwiss, is constructed, which consists of 4881 DBPs and 4881 non-DBPs extracted from the UniprotKB/Swiss-Prot database. Experimental results demonstrate that TargetDBP+ can obtain an accuracy of 85.83% and precision of 88.45% covering 82.41% of all DBP data on the independent validation subset of UniSwiss, with the MCC value (0.718) being significantly higher than those of other state-of-the-art control methods. The web server of TargetDBP+ is accessible at http://csbio.njust.edu.cn/bioinf/targetdbpplus/; the UniSwiss data set and stand-alone program of TargetDBP+ are accessible at https://github.com/jun-csbio/TargetDBPplus.

Low-Affinity Binding Sites and the Transcription Factor Specificity Paradox in Eukaryotes

Eukaryotic transcription factors (TFs) from the same structural family tend to bind similar DNA sequences, despite the ability of these TFs to execute distinct functions in vivo. The cell partly resolves this specificity paradox through combinatorial strategies and the use of low-affinity binding sites, which are better able to distinguish between similar TFs. However, because these sites have low affinity, it is challenging to understand how TFs recognize them in vivo. Here, we summarize recent findings and technological advancements that allow for the quantification and mechanistic interpretation of TF recognition across a wide range of affinities. We propose a model that integrates insights from the fields of genetics and cell biology to provide further conceptual understanding of TF binding specificity. We argue that in eukaryotes, target specificity is driven by an inhomogeneous 3D nuclear distribution of TFs and by variation in DNA binding affinity such that locally elevated TF concentration allows low-affinity binding sites to be functional.

Structural and biophysical properties of h-FANCI ARM repeat protein

Fanconi anemia complementation groups - I (FANCI) protein facilitates DNA ICL (Inter-Cross-link) repair and plays a crucial role in genomic integrity. FANCI is a 1328 amino acids protein which contains armadillo (ARM) repeats and EDGE motif at the C-terminus. ARM repeats are functionally diverse and evolutionarily conserved domain that plays a pivotal role in protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions. Considering the importance of ARM repeats, we have explored comprehensive in silico and in vitro approach to examine folding pattern. Size exclusion chromatography, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and glutaraldehyde crosslinking studies suggest that FANCI ARM repeat exist as monomer as well as in oligomeric forms. Circular dichroism (CD) and fluorescence spectroscopy results demonstrate that protein has predominantly α- helices and well-folded tertiary structure. DNA binding was analysed using electrophoretic mobility shift assay by autoradiography. Temperature-dependent CD, Fluorescence spectroscopy and DLS studies concluded that protein unfolds and start forming oligomer from 30°C. The existence of stable portion within FANCI ARM repeat was examined using limited proteolysis and mass spectrometry. The normal mode analysis, molecular dynamics and principal component analysis demonstrated that helix-turn-helix (HTH) motif present in ARM repeat is highly dynamic and has anti-correlated motion. Furthermore, FANCI ARM repeat has HTH structural motif which binds to double-stranded DNA.

DNA binding protein identification by combining pseudo amino acid composition and profile-based protein representation

DNA-binding proteins play an important role in most cellular processes. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an efficient predictor for identifying DNA-binding proteins only based on the sequence information of proteins. The bottleneck for constructing a useful predictor is to find suitable features capturing the characteristics of DNA binding proteins. We applied PseAAC to DNA binding protein identification, and PseAAC was further improved by incorporating the evolutionary information by using profile-based protein representation. Finally, Combined with Support Vector Machines (SVMs), a predictor called iDNAPro-PseAAC was proposed. Experimental results on an updated benchmark dataset showed that iDNAPro-PseAAC outperformed some state-of-the-art approaches, and it can achieve stable performance on an independent dataset. By using an ensemble learning approach to incorporate more negative samples (non-DNA binding proteins) in the training process, the performance of iDNAPro-PseAAC was further improved. The web server of iDNAPro-PseAAC is available at http://bioinformatics.hitsz.edu.cn/iDNAPro-PseAAC/.

Structure-based functional characterization of repressor of toxin (Rot), a central regulator of Staphylococcus aureus virulence

Staphylococcus aureus is responsible for a large number of diverse infections worldwide. In order to support its pathogenic lifestyle, S. aureus has to regulate the expression of virulence factors in a coordinated fashion. One of the central regulators of the S. aureus virulence regulatory networks is the transcription factor repressor of toxin (Rot). Rot plays a key role in regulating S. aureus virulence through activation or repression of promoters that control expression of a large number of critical virulence factors. However, the mechanism by which Rot mediates gene regulation has remained elusive. Here, we have determined the crystal structure of Rot and used this information to probe the contribution made by specific residues to Rot function. Rot was found to form a dimer, with each monomer harboring a winged helix-turn-helix (WHTH) DNA-binding motif. Despite an overall acidic pI, the asymmetric electrostatic charge profile suggests that Rot can orient the WHTH domain to bind DNA. Structure-based site-directed mutagenesis studies demonstrated that R(91), at the tip of the wing, plays an important role in DNA binding, likely through interaction with the minor groove. We also found that Y(66), predicted to bind within the major groove, contributes to Rot interaction with target promoters. Evaluation of Rot binding to different activated and repressed promoters revealed that certain mutations on Rot exhibit promoter-specific effects, suggesting for the first time that Rot differentially interacts with target promoters. This work provides insight into a precise mechanism by which Rot controls virulence factor regulation in S. aureus.

XylS-Pm promoter interactions through two helix-turn-helix motifs: identifying XylS residues important for DNA binding and activation

The XylS protein is the positive transcription regulator of the TOL plasmid meta-cleavage pathway operon Pm. XylS belongs to the AraC family of transcriptional regulators and exhibits an N-terminal domain involved in effector recognition, and a C-terminal domain, made up of seven alpha-helices conforming two helix-turn-helix DNA-binding domains. alpha-Helix 3 and alpha-helix 6 are the recognition helices. In consonance with XylS structural organization, Pm exhibits a bipartite DNA-binding motif consisting of two boxes, called A and B, whose sequences are TGCA and GGNTA, respectively. This bipartite motif is repeated at the Pm promoter so that one of the XylS monomers binds to each of the repeats. An extensive series of genetic epistasis assays combining mutant Pm promoters and XylS single substitution mutant proteins revealed that alpha-helix 3 contacts A box nucleotides, whereas alpha-helix 6 residues contact B box nucleotides. In alpha-helix 3, Asn246 and Arg242 are involved in specific contacts with the TG dinucleotide at box A, whereas Arg296 and Glu299 contact the second G and T nucleotides at box B. On the basis of our results and of the three-dimensional model of the XylS C-terminal domain, we propose that Ser243, Glu249 and Lys250 in alpha-helix 3, and Asn299 and Arg302 in alpha-helix 6 contact the phosphate backbones. Alanine substitutions at the predicted phosphate backbone-contacting residues yielded mutants with low levels of activity, suggesting that XylS-Pm binding specificity not only involves specific amino acid-base interactions, but also relies on secondary DNA structure, which, although at another level, also comes into play. We propose a model in which a XylS dimer binds to the direct repeats in Pm in a head-to-tail conformation that allows the direct interaction of the XylS proximal subunit with the RNA polymerase sigma factor.

Slow Assembly and Disassembly of λ Cro Repressor Dimers

Dimers of Cro are required to recognize operator DNA and repress transcription, but dimerization is weak compared to DNA binding. Fluorophore-conjugated, single-cysteine variants of Cro have been used to investigate the equilibria and kinetics of dimer assembly. Equilibrium distributions of mixed dimers, monitored by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), confirm that labeled variants have equilibrium dimer dissociation constants in the micromolar concentration range. Subunit exchange experiments yield first order rate constants for dimer dissociation that range from 0.02 s(-1) to 0.04 s(-1). Association rate constants calculated from the ratios of dissociation equilibrium and rate constants range from 0.7x10(4) M(-1) s(-1) to 3x10(4) M(-1) s(-1), depending on the site of the fluorescent label. At nanomolar concentrations of subunits, assembly can be driven by addition of DNA. The bimolecular association rate constants measured under these conditions are not dramatically enhanced, ranging from 7x10(4) M(-1) s(-1) to 9x10(4) M(-1) s(-1). The association rate is second order in protein but independent of DNA concentration between 10 nM and 200 nM. The association of subunits under native conditions is more than four orders of magnitude slower than the fast assembly phase measured previously in refolding experiments, and is unaffected by peptidyl-prolyl isomerases. Stabilization of the folded structure of the protein by residue substitution in Cro F58W or reduced temperature increases the ratio of dimers to monomers and decreases the rate of subunit exchange. These data suggest that native monomers have compact structures with substantial barriers to unfolding and that unfolded or partially folded monomers are the preferred substrates for dimer assembly. Cro binding in vivo may be under kinetic rather than thermodynamic control. The slow assembly of Cro dimers demonstrated here provides a new perspective on the lysis/lysogeny switch of bacteriophage lambda.

Methods for transcription factor separation

Recent advances in the separation of transcription factors (TFs) are reviewed in this article. An overview of the transcription factor families and their structure is discussed and a computer analysis of their sequences reveals that while they do not differ from other proteins in molecular mass or isoelectric pH, they do differ from other proteins in the abundance of certain amino acids. The chromatographic and electrophoretic methods which have been successfully used for purification and analysis are discussed and recent advances in stationary and mobile phase composition is discussed.

The structure of the transcriptional antiterminator NusB from Escherichia coli

We have determined the solution structure of NusB, a transcription antitermination protein from Escherichia coli. The structure reveals a novel, all alpha-helical protein fold. NusB mutations that cause a loss of function (NusB5) or alter specificity for RNA targets (NusB101) are localized to surface residues and likely affect RNA-protein or protein-protein interactions. Residues that are highly conserved among homologs stabilize the protein core. The solution structure of E. coli NusB presented here resembles that of Mycobacterium tuberculosis NusB determined by X-ray diffraction, but differs substantially from a solution structure of E. coli NusB reported earlier.

Dimerisation mutants of Lac repressor. I. A monomeric mutant, L251A, that binds Lac operator DNA as a dimer

Dimer formation between monomers of the Escherichia coli Lac repressor is substantially specificed by the interactions between three alpha-helices in each monomer which form a hydrophobic interface. As a first step in analysing the specificity of this interaction, we examined the mutant L251A. LacR bearing this mutation in a background lacking the C-terminal heptad repeats is completely incapable of forming dimers in solution, with a dimer-monomer equilibrium dissociation constant, or Kd, higher than 10(-5)M. This correlates with a 200-fold decrease in its ability to repress the lac operon in vivo compared to dimeric LacR. Surprisingly, the mutant is still capable of forming dimers upon binding to short operator DNA in vitro. Analysis of the kinetic parameters of binding of the mutant to operator DNA reveals a 2000 to 3000-fold increase in the equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) of the mutant-DNA complex in comparison to dimeric LacR-operator complexes, with the change almost entirely due to a greater than 1000-fold decrease in association rate. The dissociation rate varies only by a factor of about two, in comparison to dimeric LacR. This change reflects a kinetic pathway in which dimer formation, in solution or on DNA, is the rate-limiting step. These findings have implications for the specificity and stability of the protein-protein interface in question.

Intermolecular contacts between the lambda-Cro repressor and the operator DNA characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

The specific interaction between lambda phage Cro repressor and the DNA fragment bearing the consensus sequence of operators has been studied using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Using both 15N- and 13C/15N- labeled lambda-Cro in complex with unlabeled DNA, chemical shift assignments of the lambda-Cro-DNA complex were obtained using heteronuclear NMR experiments. Inter-molecular contacts between the protein and DNA were identified using heteronuclear filtered NOESY experiments. The inter-molecular contacts were supplemented with intra-protein and intra-DNA NOE constraints to dock lambda-Cro to the bent B-form DNA using restrained molecular dynamics. The structure of one of the subunits of lambda-Cro in the complex is essentially the same as that of the unbound form. In the complex, inter-molecular NOEs were observed between the "helix-turn-helix" region comprising the alpha2 and alpha3 helices of the lambda-Cro protein and the major groove of the DNA. The methyl group of Thr17 forms a hydrophobic contact with the methyl group of the thymine at base pair 1 in the DNA, and Val25 and Ala29 make hydrophobic contacts with the methyl group of the thymine at base pair 5. The presence and the absence of these contacts can explain the difference in the affinity of lambda-Cro to several variants of the operator sequence.

The structure of plasmid-encoded transcriptional repressor CopG unliganded and bound to its operator

The structure of the 45 amino acid transcriptional repressor, CopG, has been solved unliganded and bound to its target operator DNA. The protein, encoded by the promiscuous streptococcal plasmid pMV158, is involved in the control of plasmid copy number. The structure of this protein repressor, which is the shortest reported to date and the first isolated from a plasmid, has a homodimeric ribbon-helix-helix arrangement. It is the prototype for a family of homologous plasmid repressors. CopG cooperatively associates, completely protecting several turns on one face of the double helix in both directions from a 13-bp pseudosymmetric primary DNA recognition element. In the complex structure, one protein tetramer binds at one face of a 19-bp oligonucleotide, containing the pseudosymmetric element, with two beta-ribbons inserted into the major groove. The DNA is bent 60 degrees by compression of both major and minor grooves. The protein dimer displays topological similarity to Arc and MetJ repressors. Nevertheless, the functional tetramer has a unique structure with the two vicinal recognition ribbon elements at a short distance, thus inducing strong DNA bend. Further structural resemblance is found with helix-turn-helix regions of unrelated DNA-binding proteins. In contrast to these, however, the bihelical region of CopG has a role in oligomerization instead of DNA recognition. This observation unveils an evolutionary link between ribbon-helix-helix and helix-turn-helix proteins.

Refined structure of Cro repressor protein from bacteriophage lambda suggests both flexibility and plasticity

The structure of the Cro repressor protein from phage lambda has been refined to a crystallographic R-value of 19.3% at 2.3 A resolution. The re fined model supports the structure as originally described in 1981 and provides a basis for comparison with the Cro-operator complex described in the accompanying paper. Changes in structure seen in different crystal forms and modifications of Cro suggest that the individual subunits are somewhat plastic in nature. In addition, the dimer of Cro suggests a high degree of flexibility, which may be important in forming the Cro-DNA complex. The structure of the Cro subunit as determined by NMR agrees reasonably well with that in the crystals (root-mean-square discrepancy of about 2 A for all atoms). There are, however, only a limited number of intersubunit distance constraints and, presumably for this reason, the different NMR models for the dimer vary substantially among themselves (discrepancies of 1.3 to 5.5 A). Because of this variation it is not possible to say whether the range of discrepancies between the X-ray and NMR Cro dimers (2.9 to 7.5 A) represent a significant difference between the X-ray and solution structures. It has previously been proposed that substitutions of Tyr26 in Cro increase thermal stability by the "reverse hydrophobic effect", i.e. by exposing 40% more hydrophobic surface to solvent in the folded form than in the unfolded state. The refined structure, however, suggests that Tyr26 is equally solvent exposed in the folded and unfolded states. The most stabilizing substitution is Tyr26-->Asp and in this case it appears that interaction with an alpha-helix dipole is at least partly responsible for the enhanced stability.

Crystal structure of lambda-Cro bound to a consensus operator at 3.0 A resolution

The structure of the Cro protein from bacteriophage lambda in complex with a 19 base-pair DNA duplex that includes the 17 base-pair consensus operator has been determined at 3.0 A resolution. The structure confirms the large changes in the protein and DNA seen previously in a crystallographically distinct low-resolution structure of the complex and, for the first time, reveals the detailed interactions between the side-chains of the protein and the base-pairs of the operator. Relative to the crystal structure of the free protein, the subunits of Cro rotate 53 degrees with respect to each other on binding DNA. At the same time the DNA is bent by 40 degrees through the 19 base-pairs. The intersubunit connection includes a region within the protein core that is structurally reminiscent of the "ball and socket" motif seen in the immunoglobulins and T-cell receptors. The crystal structure of the Cro complex is consistent with virtually all available biochemical and related data. Some of the interactions between Cro and DNA proposed on the basis of model-building are now seen to be correct, but many are different. Tests of the original model by mutagenesis and biochemical analysis corrected some but not all of the errors. Within the limitations of the crystallographic resolution it appears that operator recognition is achieved almost entirely by direct hydrogen-bonding and van der Waals contacts between the protein and the exposed bases within the major groove of the DNA. The discrimination of Cro between the operators OR3 and OR1, which differ in sequence at just three positions, is inferred to result from a combination of small differences, both favorable and unfavorable. A van der Waals contact at one of the positions is of primary importance, while the other two provide smaller, indirect effects. Direct hydrogen bonding is not utilized in this distinction.

Solution structure and dynamics of a designed monomeric variant of the lambda Cro repressor

The solution structure of a monomeric variant of the lambda Cro repressor has been determined by multidimensional NMR. Cro K56[DGEVK] differs from wild-type Cro by the insertion of five amino acids at the center of the dimer interface. 1H and 15N resonances for 70 of the 71 residues have been assigned. Thirty-two structures were calculated by hybrid distance geometry/simulated annealing methods using 463 NOE-distance restraints, 26 hydrogen-bond, and 39 dihedral-angle restraints. The root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) from the average structure for atoms in residues 3-60 is 1.03 +/- 0.44 A for the peptide backbone and 1.6 +/- 0.73 A for all nonhydrogen atoms. The overall structure conforms very well to the original design. Although the five inserted residues form a beta hairpin as expected, this engineered turn as well as other turns in the structure are not well defined by the NMR data. Dynamics studies of backbone amides reveal T1/T2 ratios of residues in the alpha2-alpha3, beta2-beta3, and engineered turn that are reflective of chemical exchange or internal motion. The solution structure and dynamics are discussed in light of the conformational variation that has been observed in other Cro structures, and the importance of flexibility in DNA recognition.

The role of DNA bending in Cro protein-DNA interactions

Binding energy of DNA-Cro protein complexes is analyzed in terms of DNA elasticity, using a sequence-dependent anisotropic bendability (SDAB) model of DNA, developed recently [M.M. Gromiha, M.G. Munteanu, A. Gabrielian and S. Pongor, J. Biol. Phys. 22(1996) 227-243.]. The protein is considered to bind aspecifically to DNA that reduces the freedom of movement in the DNA molecule. In cognate DNA, the Cro protein moves on to form specific interactions and bends DNA. A comparison of the experimental data [Y. Takeda, A. Sarai and V.M. Rivera, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 86 (1989) 439-443.] with the calculated DNA stiffness data shows that delta G of the complex formation increases with stiffness of the ligand when the interactions are nonspecific ones, while an opposite trend is observed for specific binding. Both of these trends are in agreement with our approach using the SDAB model. A decomposition of the energy terms suggests that binding energy in the nonspecific case is used maily to compensate the free energy changes due to entropy lost by DNA, while the energy of specific interactions provide enough energy both to bend the DNA molecule and to change the conformation of the Cro protein upon ligand binding.

Consistencies of individual DNA base-amino acid interactions in structures and sequences

Amino acid-amino acid interaction energies have been derived from crystal structure data for a number of years. Here is reported the first derivation of normalized relative interaction from binding data for each of the four bases interacting with a specific amino acid, utilizing data from combinatorial multiplex DNA binding of zinc finger domains [Desjarlais, J. R. and Berg, J. M. (1994) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 91, 11099-11103]. The five strongest interactions are observed for lysine-guanine, lysine-thymine, arginine-guanine, aspartic acid-cytosine and asparagine-adenine. These rankings for interactions with the four bases appear to be related to base-amino acid partial charges. Also, similar normalized relative interaction energies are derived by using DNA binding data for Cro and lambda repressors and the R2R3 c-Myb protein domain [Takeda, Y., Sarai, A. and Rivera, V. M. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 86, 439-443; Sarai, A. and Takeda, Y. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 86, 6513-6517; Ogata, K. et al. (1995) submitted]. These energies correlate well with the combinatorial multiplex energies, and the strongest cases are similar between the two sets. They also correlate well with similar relative interaction energies derived directly from frequencies of bases in the bacteriophage lambda operator sequences. These results suggest that such potentials are general and that extensive combinatorial binding studies can be used to derive potential energies for DNA-protein interactions.

Solution structure of a POU-specific homeodomain: 3D-NMR studies of human B-cell transcription factor Oct-2

The POU DNA-binding motif defines a conserved family of eukaryotic transcription factors involved in regulation of gene expression. This bipartite motif consists of an N-terminal POU-specific domain (POUs), a flexible linker, and a C-terminal POU-specific homeodomain (POUHD). Here we describe the solution structure of a POU-specific homeodomain. An NMR model is obtained from Oct-2, a human B-cell specific transcription factor which participates in the regulation of immunoglobulin genes. A fragment of Oct-2 containing POUHD and an adjoining linker was expressed in Escherichia coli and characterized by three-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (3D-NMR) spectroscopy. Complete 1H and 15N resonance assignment of the POUHD moiety is presented. The POUHD solution structure, as calculated by distance geometry and simulated annealing (DG/SA), is similar to that of canonical homeodomains. A salient difference between solution and crystal structures is observed in the C-terminal segment of alpha-helix 3 (the HTH recognition helix), which is not well ordered in solution. Because this segment presumably folds upon specific DNA binding, its flexibility in solution may reduce the intrinsic DNA affinity of POUHD in the absence of POUs.

Helix-capping interaction in lambda Cro protein: a free energy simulation analysis

The stability mutant Tyr-26-->Asp was studied in the Cro protein from bacteriophage lambda using free energy molecular dynamics simulations. The mutant was calculated to be more stable than the wild type by 3.0 +/- 1.7 kcal/mol/monomer, in reasonable agreement with experiment (1.4 kcal/mol/monomer). Moreover, the aspartic acid in the mutant was found to form a capping interaction with the amino terminus of the third alpha-helix of Cro. The simulations were analyzed to understand better the source of the stability of this helix-capping interaction and to examine the results in light of previous explanations of stabilizing helix caps--namely, a model of local unsatisfied hydrogen bonds at the helix termini and the helix macrodipole model. Analysis of the simulations shows that the stabilizing effect of this charged helical cap is due both to favorable hydrogen bonds with backbone NH groups at the helix terminus and to favorable electrostatic interactions (but not hydrogen bonds) with their carbonyls (effectively the next row of local dipoles in the helix). However, electrostatic interactions are weak or negligible with backbone dipolar groups in the helix further away from the terminus. Moreover, the importance of other local electrostatic interactions with polar side chains near the helix terminus, which are neglected in most treatments of this effect, are shown to be important. Thus, the results support a model that is intermediate between the two previous explanations: both unsatisfied hydrogen bonds at the helix terminus and other, local preoriented dipolar groups stabilize the helix cap. These findings suggest that similar interactions with preoriented dipolar groups may be important for cooperativity in other charge-dipole interactions and may be employed to advantage for molecular design.

An invariant asparagine in the POU-specific homeodomain regulates the specificity of the Oct-2 POU motif

The homeodomain defines a family of transcription factors broadly involved in the regulation of gene expression. DNA recognition, as observed in three representative complexes (Engrailed, Antennapedia, and MAT alpha 2), is mediated in the major groove by a helix-turn-helix (HTH) element and in the minor groove by an N-terminal arm. The three complexes share similar overall features, but they also exhibit significant differences in DNA interactions. Because these differences may distinguish the biological activities of different classes of homeodomains, we have investigated the contribution of the Oct-2 POU-specific homeodomain (POUHD) to the specificity of the bipartite POU motif. Comparative studies of variant protein-DNA complexes demonstrate the following. (i) Mutations in an invariant residue in the POUHD HTH (N347; residue 10 of the putative recognition alpha-helix) reduce octamer binding with the relaxation of specificity at one position (5'-ATGCAAAT). The inferred HTH side chain-base interaction, although not observed in the solution structure of the Antennapedia complex, is in accord with homologous contacts in the Engrailed and MAT alpha 2 cocrystal structures. (ii) Comparison of the DNA-binding properties of POU and POUHD demonstrates that POUs and POUHD independently regulate specificity at opposite ends of the DNA site (5'-TATGCAAAT). Both domains contact the two central bases (5'-TATGCAAAT) where coordinate binding of POUS in the major groove overrides the intrinsic specificity of POUHD in the minor groove. (iii) The differential sensitivity of POU and POUHD to 2'-deoxyinosine substitutions (a minor-groove modification) suggests that POUS binding repositions the POUHD N-terminal "arm".(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Predicted common structural features of DNA-binding domains from Ets, Myb and HMG transcription factors

The Ets family of transcription factors shares a 85 amino acid domain, named the ETS domain, which appears responsible for their DNA binding activity. This domain did not show any clear similarity with already known DNA binding motifs. Hydrophobic Cluster Analysis (HCA), a sensitive method able to detect protein structural relationships even at low sequence identity, was chosen in order to compare the ETS domain with other conventional DNA binding motifs. HCA analysis combined with known three-dimensional NMR data, suggests that the ETS domain may be structurally related to the Myb DNA binding domain and possibly to the HMG one. Indeed, the ETS domain is likely to contain two helix-loop-helix motifs.

Symmetry and secondary structure of the replication terminator protein of Bacillus subtilis: sedimentation equilibrium and circular dichroic, infrared, and NMR spectroscopic studies

We have used analytical ultracentrifugation in combination with a number of spectroscopic techniques to analyze the symmetry and secondary structure of the DNA-binding replication terminator protein (RTP) of Bacillus subtilis. Sedimentation equilibrium studies confirm that RTP is a dimer in solution under the conditions used for spectroscopic analysis, whereas the number of cross peaks displayed in 1H-15N HSQC NMR spectra of uniformly 15N-labeled RTP are consistent with the primary structure of the monomer. These two results in combination lead to the conclusion that RTP is a symmetric dimer in solution. Circular dichroic and Fourier-transform infrared spectra reveal, in contrast to the results obtained from a number of commonly used secondary structure prediction algorithms, that RTP contains 20-30% alpha-helical and 40-50% beta-sheet/beta-turn secondary structure and that the conformation of the protein remains unchanged over the pH range 5-8. It is proposed on the basis of protein folding-class prediction algorithms, in combination with various physical properties of RTP, that it belongs to the alpha + beta protein-folding class.

Crystal structure at 1.7 A of the bovine papillomavirus-1 E2 DNA-binding domain bound to its DNA target

The dominant transcriptional regulator of the papillomaviruses, E2, binds to its specific DNA target through a previously unobserved dimeric antiparallel beta-barrel. The DNA is severely but smoothly bent over the barrel by the interaction of successive major grooves with a pair of symmetrically disposed alpha-helices. The specific interface is an 'interwoven' network of interactions where the identifying base pairs of the target contact more than one amino-acid side chain and the discriminating amino acids interact with more than one base pair.

Thermodynamics of Cro protein-DNA interactions

Using a highly sensitive pulsed-flow microcalorimeter, we have measured the changes in enthalpy and determined the thermodynamic parameters delta H, delta S degree, delta G degree, and delta C(p) for Cro protein-DNA association reactions. The reactions studied include sequence-nonspecific DNA association and sequence-specific DNA associations involving single- and multiple-base alterations and/or single-amino acid alteration mutants. (i) The association of Cro protein with nonspecific DNA at 15 degrees C is characterized by delta H = +4.4 kcal.mol-1 (1 cal = 4.18J), delta S degrees = 49 cal.mol-1.K-1, delta G degrees = -9.7 kcal.mol-1, and delta Cp congruent to 0; the association with specific high-affinity operator OR3 DNA is characterized by delta H = +0.8 kcal.mol-1, delta S degree = 59 cal.mol-1.K-1, delta G degree = -16.1 kcal.mol-1, and delta Cp = -360 cal.mol-1.K-1, respectively. Both nonspecific and specific Cro-DNA associations are entropy-driven. (ii) Plots of delta H vs. delta Cp and delta S degree vs. delta Cp for the 20 association reactions studied fall into two correlation groups with linear slopes of +9.4 K and -20.5 K and of -0.03 and -0.14, respectively. These regression lines have common intercepts, at the delta H and delta S degree values of nonspecific association (where delta Cp congruent to 0). The results suggest that there are, at least, two distinct conformational subclasses in specific Cro-DNA complexes, stabilized by different combinations of enthalpic and entropic contributions. The delta G degree and delta Cp values form an approximately single linear correlation group as a consequence of compensatory contributions from delta H and delta S degree to delta G degree and to delta Cp. Cro protein-DNA associations share some similar thermodynamic properties with protein folding, but their overall energetics are quite different. Although the nonspecific complex is stabilized predominantly by electrostatic forces, it appears that H bonds, van der Waals contacts, hydrophobic effects, and charge interactions all contribute to the stability (delta G degree and delta Cp) of the specific complex. (iii) The variations in the values of the thermodynamic parameters are in general accord with our knowledge of the structure of the Cro-DNA complex.

Contacts between Tet repressor and tet operator revealed by new recognition specificities of single amino acid replacement mutants

We have analyzed the DNA binding properties of Tet-repressor mutants with single amino acid residue replacements at eight positions within the alpha-helix-turn-alpha-helix DNA-binding motif. A saturation mutagenesis of Gln38, Pro39, Thr40, Tyr42, Trp43 and His44 in the second alpha-helix was performed; in addition, several substitutions of Thr27 and Arg28 in the first alpha-helix were constructed. The abilities of these mutant repressors to bind a set of 16 operator variants were determined and revealed 23 new binding specificities. All repressor mutants with DNA-binding activity were inducible by tetracycline, while mutants lacking binding activity were trans-dominant over the wild-type. All mutant proteins were present at the same intracellular steady-state concentrations as the wild-type. These results suggest the structural integrity of the mutant repressors. On the basis of the new recognition specificities, five contacts between a repressor monomer and each operator half-site and the chemical nature of these repressor-operator interactions are proposed. We suggest that Arg28 contacts guanine of the G.C base-pair at operator position 2 with two H-bonds, Gln38 binds adenine of the A.T base-pair at position 3 with two H-bonds, and the methyl group of Thr40 participates in a van der Waals' contact with cytosine of the G.C base-pair at position 6 of tet operator. A previously unrecognized type of interaction is proposed for Pro39, which inserts its side-chain between the methyl groups of the thymines of T.A and A.T base-pairs at positions 4 and 5. Computer modeling of these proposed contacts reveals that they are possible using the canonical structures of the helix-turn-helix motif and B-DNA. These contacts suggest an inverse orientation of the Tet repressor helix-turn-helix with respect to the operator center as compared with non-inducible repressor-operator complexes, and are supported by similar contacts of other repressor-operator complexes.

Interaction of lambda cro repressor with synthetic operator OR3 studied by competition binding with minor groove binders

In the present work, we employ a combination of CD spectroscopy and gel retardation technique to characterize thermodynamically the binding of lambda phage cro repressor to a 17 base pair operator OR3. We have found that three minor groove-binding antibiotics, distamycin A, netropsin and sibiromycin, compete effectively with the cro for binding to the operator OR3. Among these antibiotics, sibiromycin binds covalently to DNA in the minor groove at the NH2 of guanine, whereas distamycin A and netropsin interact preferentially with runs of AT base pairs and avoid DNA regions containing guanine bases in the two polynucleotide strands. Only subtle DNA conformation changes are known to take place upon binding of these antibiotics. Both the CD spectral profiles and the results of the gel retardation experiments indicate that distamycin A and netropsin can displace cro repressor from the operator OR3. The binding of cro repressor to the OR3 is accompanied by considerable changes in CD in the far-UV region which appear to be attributed to a DNA-dependent structural transition in the protein. Spectral changes are also induced in the wavelength region of 270-290 nm. The CD spectral profile of the cro-OR3 mixture in the presence of distamycin A can be represented as a sum of the CD spectrum of the repressor-operator complex and spectrum of distamycin-DNA complex at the appropriate molar ratio of the bound antibiotic to the operator DNA (r). When r tends to the saturation level of binding the CD spectrum in the region of 270-360 nm approaches a CD pattern typical of complexes of the antibiotic with the free DNA oligomer. This suggests that simultaneous binding of cro repressor and distamycin A to the same DNA oligomer is not possible and that distamycin A and netropsin can be used to determine the equilibrium affinity constant of cro repressor to the synthetic operator from competition-type experiments. The binding constant of cro repressor to the OR3 is found to be (6 +/- 1).10(6)M-1 at 20 degrees C in 10 mM sodium cacodylate buffer (pH 7.0) in the presence of 0.1 M NH4F.

Transcription regulation by steroid hormones: a computer simulation study

Three-dimensional structures of complexes of 66 amino acid-DNA binding domains of human progesterone (hPR), estrogen (hER) and glucocorticoid (hGR) receptors (proteins), with ten base pair DNA duplexes: d(AGGTCATGCT).d(AGCATGACCT) and d(AGAACATGCT).d(AGCATGTTCT) were obtained using computer modeling and molecular mechanics techniques. Cartesian coordinates for the proteins were obtained from: 1) structural data of hER and hGR by NMR spectroscopy; 2) steric constraints imposed by tetrahedral coordination of the zinc ion to Cys residues, and 3) energy minimization in torsional and cartesian space. The proteins were made to interact with DNA (in B-form) in major groove through alpha-helical linker between the two zinc fingers. The geometry of the complexes was obtained by allowing them to slide, glide, penetrate in to and out of the groove, and to rotate about the helical axis. The complexes were energy minimized. Also maximized was the number of H-bonds between proteins and DNA. The complex structures were refined by molecular mechanics using AMBER 3.0. Structural parameters of DNA were analyzed in each complex and compared with those of native DNA optimized separately. The stereochemical differences of the complexes are discussed.

Genetic analysis of the Tn21 mer operator-promoter

The mercury resistance operon, mer, of the transposon Tn21 is transcribed from two overlapping divergent promoters: PR for the regulatory gene, merR, and PTPCAD for the structural genes, merTPCAD. Transcription of merTPCAD is repressed in the absence of Hg(II) and activated in the presence of Hg(II) by the regulatory protein, MerR. In addition, MerR represses its own expression regardless of the presence of Hg(II). MerR binds as a dimer to a single region of dyad symmetry lying between the -35 and -10 hexamers of PTPCAD. Analysis of the expression of transcriptional fusions to hydroxylamine- and oligonucleotide-generated mutants of this divergent operator-promoter region identified key bases involved in MerR-dependent repression of PTPCAD and of PR and in activation of PTPCAD. Six of the seven mutants affecting the palindromic region were altered in their ability to bind the MerR protein in vitro as measured by fragment retardation assays. These differences in in vitro MerR binding correlated well with the in vivo measurements of repression or of activation. Bases identified as functionally relevant by this genetic analysis coincide extensively with those previously identified as relevant via in vivo footprinting. Four major points emerge from this analysis: (i) transition and transversion mutations within the spacer between the -10 and -35 hexamers of PTPCAD generally have little effect on the MerR-independent (i.e., unregulated) expression of either promoter; (ii) alteration of certain bases in the MerR-binding dyad affects repression of PTPCAD differently than repression of PR; (iii) certain dyad changes can impair activation of PTPCAD more severely than repression of this promoter; and (iv) mutations in the -10 hexamer of PTPCAD which also effect PR expression define one of two potential -10 hexamers in PR as actually functional in vivo.

An effective enzyme interacting with poly (dT-dA).poly (dT-dA): a dynamic enhancer-repressor action

The Green function technique is used to study the open hydrogen bond probability of poly(dT-dA).poly(dT-dA) when an effective enzyme is attached to the helix. The DNA interstrand hydrogen bond mean motion and probability of fluctuating to an open state depends on the internal vibrational frequency of the enzyme. An enzyme with internal frequency of 80 cm-1 reduces hydrogen bond motion and the resulting probability of hydrogen bond fluctuational opening. An enzyme with internal frequency of 72 cm-1 increases hydrogen bond motion and the probability of hydrogen bond breaking.

Structural aspects of protein-DNA recognition

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Mammalian beta-polymerase promoter: phosphorylation of ATF/CRE-binding protein and regulation of DNA binding

The gene for the mammalian DNA repair enzyme DNA polymerase beta (beta-pol) is constitutively expressed in most cells, but is regulated in a tissue-specific fashion and can be induced in response to some types of DNA damaging agents. The promoter for the human beta-pol gene has been characterized and found to be TATA-less, but it does have multiple GC boxes and one ATF/CRE-binding site located within 50 residues 5' of the major mRNA start site. The ATF/CRE-binding site has been found to be essential for activity of the cloned promoter. We report that a bovine testes DNA-binding protein with specificity for the beta-pol promoter ATF/CRE-binding site is phosphorylated in vivo and contains several phosphorylation sites. Sequence specific DNA-binding by the purified protein is reduced when the natural protein is dephosphorylated or when it is hyperphosphorylated by protein kinase A (cKA) in vitro. These results suggest the possibility that phosphorylation systems may change binding of this ATF/CRE-binding protein to the beta-pol promoter and in turn modulate the promoter. Possible correlation of the results with transient expression activity of the cloned beta-pol promoter fusion gene was obtained in 293 cells. Cotransfection with a cKA expression plasmid to elevate phosphorylation was found to strongly reduce promoter activity.

Spectroscopic studies on lambda cro protein-DNA interactions

Spectroscopic (circular dichroism and fluorescence) and thermodynamic studies were conducted on lambda Cro-DNA interactions. Some base substitutions were introduced to the operator and the effects on the conformation of the complex and thermodynamic parameters for dissociation of the complex were examined. It was found that, (1) in the specific binding of Cro with DNA which has a (pseudo) consensus sequence, DNA is overwound, while in non-specific binding it is unchanged, or rather unwound; (2) substitution of central base-pairs or the introduction of a mismatched base-pair at the center of the operator reduces the extent of DNA conformational change on Cro binding and lessens the stability of the Cro-DNA complex, even though there is apparently no direct interaction between Cro and DNA at these positions; (3) stability of the complex increases with the degree of DNA conformational change of the same type during binding; (4) in some cases of specific binding, there are three states in the dissociation of the complex as observed by salt titration: two conformational states for the complex depending on salt concentration and, in non-specific binding, dissociation is a two-state transition; (5) the number of ions involved in interactions between Cro and 17 base-pair DNA is about 7.7 for NaCl titrations; (6) dissociation free energy prediction of the Cro-DNA complex by simple addition of the dissociation free energy change of a single base-pair substitution agrees with our experimental results when DNA overwinding occurs during binding, i.e. in specific binding.

DNA bending induced by Cro protein binding as demonstrated by gel electrophoresis

We report an approach for studying protein-induced DNA bends in solution that is based on measuring the sizes of circular DNA molecules by using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. These circular fragments are obtained by ligating short synthetic oligonucleotides containing a protein-recognition region in the presence of protein. Oligonucleotides 21-base-pairs-long containing the OR3 recognition site were synthesized and ligated in both the presence and the absence of the Cro repressor from lambda phage. We show that in the presence of Cro protein, circular DNA molecules are formed with substantial frequency. No circular molecules are observed in the DNA samples ligated in the absence of Cro. These experiments clearly demonstrate that DNA bending is induced by Cro in this operator site. The sum of inherent plus Cro-induced bending is estimated as 45 degrees.

100ps molecular dynamic simulation of d(TATCACC)2

A heptanucleotide sequence d(TATCACC)2 from OR3 region of bacteriophage lambda is considered sufficient for the recognition of Cro protein. We present here results on molecular dynamic simulations on this sequence for 100 ps in 0.02 ps interval. The simulations are done using computer program GROMOS. The conformational results are averaged over each ps. The IUPAC torsional parameters for 100 conformations are illustrated using a wheal and a dial systems. Several other stereochemical parameters such as H-bonding lengths and angles, sugar puckers, helix twist and roll angles as also distances between opposite strand phosphorus are depicted graphically. We find that there is rupture of terminal H-bonds. The bases are tilted and shifted away from the helix axis giving rise to bifurcated H-bonds. H-bonds are seen even in between different base pairs. The role of these dynamic structural changes in the recognition of OR3 operator by Cro protein is discussed in the paper.