Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Institute of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, N-9037, Norway.
J Microbiol. 2010 Apr;48(2):174-83. doi: 10.1007/s12275-010-9199-5. Epub 2010 May 1.
The Ferric uptake regulator (Fur) is a global transcription factor that affects expression of bacterial genes in an iron-dependent fashion. Although the Fur protein and its iron-responsive regulon are well studied, there are still important questions that remain to be answered. For example, the consensus Fur binding site also known as the "Fur box" is under debate, and it is still unclear which Fur residues directly interact with the DNA. Our long-term goal is to dissect the biological roles of Fur in the development of the disease cold-water vibriosis, which is caused by the psychrophilic bacteria Aliivibrio salmonicida (also known as Vibrio salmonicida). Here, we have used experimental and computational methods to characterise the Fur protein from A. salmonicida (AS-Fur). Electrophoretic mobility shift assays show that AS-Fur binds to the recently proposed vibrio Fur box consensus in addition to nine promoter regions that contain Fur boxes. Binding appears to be dependent on the number of Fur boxes, and the predicted "strength" of Fur boxes. Finally, structure modeling and molecular dynamics simulations provide new insights into potential AS-Fur-DNA interactions.
铁摄取调节因子（Fur）是一种全局转录因子，以依赖于铁的方式影响细菌基因的表达。尽管 Fur 蛋白及其铁反应调节子已经得到了很好的研究，但仍有一些重要的问题有待回答。例如，共识 Fur 结合位点也称为“Fur 盒”仍存在争议，并且仍不清楚哪些 Fur 残基直接与 DNA 相互作用。我们的长期目标是剖析 Fur 在冷水弧菌病（由嗜冷细菌鲑鱼弧菌（也称为杀鲑气单胞菌）引起）发展中的生物学作用。在这里，我们使用实验和计算方法来表征来自 A. salmonicida 的 Fur 蛋白（AS-Fur）。电泳迁移率变动分析显示，AS-Fur 除了结合包含 Fur 盒的九个启动子区域外，还结合了最近提出的弧菌 Fur 盒共识。结合似乎依赖于 Fur 盒的数量和 Fur 盒的预测“强度”。最后，结构建模和分子动力学模拟为潜在的 AS-Fur-DNA 相互作用提供了新的见解。
