1lr1

Publication Abstract from PubMed

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.

H-NS oligomerization domain structure reveals the mechanism for high order self-association of the intact protein.,Esposito D, Petrovic A, Harris R, Ono S, Eccleston JF, Mbabaali A, Haq I, Higgins CF, Hinton JC, Driscoll PC, Ladbury JE J Mol Biol. 2002 Dec 6;324(4):841-50. PMID:12460581^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.