Dame Remus Thei, Goosen Nora
Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Gorlaeus Laboratories, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9502, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands.
FEBS Lett. 2002 Oct 9;529(2-3):151-6. doi: 10.1016/s0014-5793(02)03363-x.
The role of HU in Escherichia coli as both a protein involved in DNA compaction and as a protein with regulatory function seems to be firmly established. However, a critical look at the available data reveals that this is not true for each of the proposed roles of this protein. The role of HU as a regulatory or accessory protein in a number of systems has been thoroughly investigated and in many cases has been largely elucidated. However, almost 30 years after its discovery, convincing evidence for the proposed role of HU in DNA compaction is still lacking. Here we present an extensive literature survey of the available data which, in combination with novel microscopic insights, suggests that the role of HU could be the opposite as well. The protein is likely to play an architectural role, but instead of being responsible for DNA compaction it could be involved in antagonising compaction by other proteins such as H-NS.
HU在大肠杆菌中作为一种参与DNA压缩的蛋白质以及具有调节功能的蛋白质，其作用似乎已得到确凿证实。然而，仔细审视现有数据会发现，对于该蛋白质所提出的每种作用并非都如此。HU作为多种系统中的调节或辅助蛋白质的作用已得到深入研究，在许多情况下也已基本阐明。然而，在其发现近30年后，仍缺乏关于HU在DNA压缩中所提出作用的令人信服的证据。在此，我们对现有数据进行了广泛的文献综述，并结合新的微观见解，表明HU的作用也可能相反。该蛋白质可能发挥一种结构作用，但不是负责DNA压缩，而是可能参与对抗其他蛋白质（如H-NS）引起的压缩。
