Degenerate Sequence Recognition by AdpA

AdpA is the central transcriptional factor in the A-factor regulatory cascade of Streptomyces griseus and activates hundreds of genes required for both secondary metabolism and morphological differentiation, leading to onset of streptomycin biosynthesis as well as aerial mycelium formation and sporulation. It has been shown that AdpA binds to over 500 operator regions with the loosely conserved consensus sequence, 5'-TGGCSNGWWY-3' (S: G or C; W: A or T; Y: T or C; and N: any nucleotide). However, it is still obscure how AdpA can control hundreds of genes. To reveal the molecular basis of the low nucleotide sequence specificity, we have determined the crystal structure of the complex of DNA-binding domain of AdpA and a 14-mer duplex DNA with two-nucleotide overhangs at 5'-ends at 2.95-Å resolution. The crystal structure and electrophoretic mobility-shift assays showed that only two arginine residues, Arg262 and Arg266, are involved in the sequence recognition and determine the nucleotide specificity/preference of continuous five base-pairs of positions 1-5 in the consensus sequence. These results partially explain how AdpA directly controls hundreds of genes.

A special halide-stabilizing pair and enantioselectivity mechanism of DatA

A novel haloalkane dehalogenase DatA from Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 belongs to the HLD-II subfamily and hydrolyzes brominated and iodinated compounds, leading to the generation of the corresponding alcohol, a halide ion, and a proton. DatA possesses a unique Asn-Tyr residue pair instead of the Asn-Trp residue pair conserved among the subfamily members, thus the structural basis for its reaction mechanism merits elucidation. In addition, DatA is potentially useful for pharmaceutical and environmental applications, though several crystal structures of HLD-II dehalogenases have been reported so far, the determination of the DatA structure will provide an important contribution to those fields. This work provided insight into the reaction mechanism of DatA via a combination of X-ray crystallographic and computational analysis. The crystal structures of DatA and the Y109W mutant were determined at 1.70 Å [1] and 1.95 Å, respectively. The location of the active site was confirmed by using its novel competitive inhibitor, CHES. The structural information from these two crystal structures and the docking simulation with 1,3-dibromopropane revealed that the replacement of the Asn-Tyr pair with the Asn-Trp pair increases the binding affinity for 1,3-dibromopropane, due to the extra hydrogen bond between Trp109 and halogenated compounds; and that the key residue to bind halogenated substrate is only Asn43 in the wild-type DatA, while those in the Y109W mutant are the Asn-Trp pair. Furthermore, docking simulation using the crystal structures of DatA and some chiral compounds indicated that enantioselectivity of DatA toward brominated alkanes is determined by the large and small spaces around the halogen binding site.

A novel six-coordinated ferric ion binding mode of TtFbpA

Iron is an essential element for the growth and survival of nearly all living organisms. However, it is difficult for most organisms to get enough iron from the environment, because of the extremely low solubility of ferric ion. One of the strategies for iron acquisition is to use the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transport system. In Gram-negative bacteria, a typical iron uptake ABC transporter consists of a ferric ion-binding protein (Fbp) located in periplasm (FbpA), two transmembrane proteins that form a pathway for ferric ions (FbpB), and two peripheral ATP-binding proteins located at the cytoplasm side of the inner membrane (FbpC). TtFbpA is a ferric ion-binding protein of a putative iron uptake ABC transporter from Thermus thermophilus HB8. Here we report the crystal structures of the apo-form and ferric ion-bound form of TtFbpA at 1.8-Å and 1.7-Å resolutions, respectively [1]. The crystal structure of the ferric ion-bound TtFbpA shows that a ferric ion binds to a specific site of TtFbpA to form a six-coordinated complex by three tyrosine residues, two bicarbonates and a water molecule, revealing a novel mode of coordination to a ferric ion. Another crystal structure of ferric ion-bound TtFbpA reported earlier showed the bound ferric ion is five-coordinated by three tyrosine residues and a carbonate bound in the bidentate manner [2]. The different modes of the coordination would probably result from the different pHs used for crystallization: pH 5.5 (six-coordinated) vs. pH 7.5 (five-coordinated). The Gram negative bacterium T. thermophilus HB8 can live in a wide pH range of 3.4-9.6. We propose that TtFbpA, a periplasmic protein of T. thermophilus HB8, can act as a ferric ion-binding protein over the wide pH range by taking at least two different coordination manners to a ferric ion depending on pH. This is the first example of a periplasmic ferric iron-binding protein that can coordinate a ferric ion via multiple types of coordination complex formation.