a National Research Centre 'Kurchatov Institute', Kurchatov Complex of NBICS-Technologies , Akad. Kurchatova sqr., 1, Moscow 123182 , Russian Federation.
b Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology , Institutskiy per., 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region 141700 , Russian Federation.
J Biomol Struct Dyn. 2018 Jan;36(1):45-53. doi: 10.1080/07391102.2016.1264893. Epub 2016 Dec 29.
The histone-like (HU) protein is one of the major nucleoid-associated proteins involved in DNA supercoiling and compaction into bacterial nucleoid as well as in all DNA-dependent transactions. This small positively charged dimeric protein binds DNA in a non-sequence specific manner promoting DNA super-structures. The majority of HU proteins are highly conserved among bacteria; however, HU protein from Mycoplasma gallisepticum (HUMgal) has multiple amino acid substitutions in the most conserved regions, which are believed to contribute to its specificity to DNA targets unusual for canonical HU proteins. In this work, we studied the structural dynamic properties of the HUMgal dimer by NMR spectroscopy and MD simulations. The obtained all-atom model displays compliance with the NMR data and confirms the heterogeneous backbone flexibility of HUMgal. We found that HUMgal, being folded into a dimeric conformation typical for HU proteins, has a labile α-helical body with protruded β-stranded arms forming DNA-binding domain that are highly flexible in the absence of DNA. The amino acid substitutions in conserved regions of the protein are likely to affect the conformational lability of the HUMgal dimer that can be responsible for complex functional behavior of HUMgal in vivo, e.g. facilitating its spatial adaptation to non-canonical DNA-targets.
组蛋白样(HU)蛋白是参与 DNA 超螺旋和压缩成细菌类核以及所有依赖 DNA 的过程的主要类核相关蛋白之一。这种小的带正电荷的二聚体蛋白以非序列特异性的方式结合 DNA,促进 DNA 超结构的形成。大多数 HU 蛋白在细菌中高度保守;然而,鸡败血支原体(HUMgal)的 HU 蛋白在最保守的区域有多个氨基酸取代,据信这有助于其对非典型 HU 蛋白的 DNA 靶标具有特异性。在这项工作中,我们通过 NMR 光谱和 MD 模拟研究了 HUMgal 二聚体的结构动态特性。获得的全原子模型与 NMR 数据相符,并证实了 HUMgal 的异质骨架柔性。我们发现,HUMgal 折叠成 HU 蛋白典型的二聚体构象,具有不稳定的α-螺旋体,伸出的β-折叠臂形成 DNA 结合域,在没有 DNA 的情况下具有高度的柔性。该蛋白保守区域的氨基酸取代可能会影响 HUMgal 二聚体的构象不稳定性,这可能是 HUMgal 在体内复杂功能行为的原因,例如促进其对非典型 DNA 靶标的空间适应。