2z43

From Proteopedia

Revision as of 17:00, 21 February 2008

Structure of a twinned crystal of RadA

Overview

RecA family proteins engage in an ATP-dependent DNA strand exchange reaction that includes a ssDNA nucleoprotein helical filament and a homologous dsDNA sequence. In spite of more than 20 years of efforts, the molecular mechanism of homology pairing and strand exchange is still not fully understood. Here we report a crystal structure of Sulfolobus solfataricus RadA overwound right-handed filament with three monomers per helical pitch. This structure reveals conformational details of the first ssDNA binding disordered loop (denoted L1 motif) and the dsDNA binding N-terminal domain (NTD). L1 and NTD together form an outwardly open palm structure on the outer surface of the helical filament. Inside this palm structure, five conserved basic amino acid residues (K27, K60, R117, R223 and R229) surround a 25 A pocket that is wide enough to accommodate anionic ssDNA, dsDNA or both. Biochemical analyses demonstrate that these five positively charged residues are essential for DNA binding and for RadA-catalyzed D-loop formation. We suggest that the overwound right-handed RadA filament represents a functional conformation in the homology search and pairing reaction. A new structural model is proposed for the homologous interactions between a RadA-ssDNA nucleoprotein filament and its dsDNA target.

About this Structure

2Z43 is a Single protein structure of sequence from Sulfolobus solfataricus. Full crystallographic information is available from OCA.

Reference

Structural and functional analyses of five conserved positively charged residues in the L1 and N-terminal DNA binding motifs of archaeal RADA protein., Chen LT, Ko TP, Chang YW, Lin KA, Wang AH, Wang TF, PLoS ONE. 2007 Sep 12;2(9):e858. PMID:17848989

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