Muskhelishvili Georgi, Travers Andrew
Jacobs University Bremen, 28759, Bremen, Germany.
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0QH, UK.
Biophys Rev. 2016 Nov;8(Suppl 1):5-22. doi: 10.1007/s12551-016-0237-3. Epub 2016 Nov 19.
We argue that dynamic changes in DNA supercoiling in vivo determine both how DNA is packaged and how it is accessed for transcription and for other manipulations such as recombination. In both bacteria and eukaryotes, the principal generators of DNA superhelicity are DNA translocases, supplemented in bacteria by DNA gyrase. By generating gradients of superhelicity upstream and downstream of their site of activity, translocases enable the differential binding of proteins which preferentially interact with respectively more untwisted or more writhed DNA. Such preferences enable, in principle, the sequential binding of different classes of protein and so constitute an essential driver of chromatin organization.
我们认为,体内DNA超螺旋的动态变化决定了DNA的包装方式以及它如何被用于转录和其他操作(如重组)。在细菌和真核生物中,DNA超螺旋的主要产生者是DNA转位酶,在细菌中DNA促旋酶对其起补充作用。通过在其活性位点的上游和下游产生超螺旋梯度,转位酶使蛋白质能够进行差异性结合,这些蛋白质分别优先与扭曲程度较低或扭曲程度较高的DNA相互作用。原则上,这种偏好使得不同类别的蛋白质能够顺序结合,因此构成了染色质组织的重要驱动因素。