Structural Insight of the Full-Length Ros Protein: A Prototype of the Prokaryotic Zinc-Finger Family

Sci Rep. 2020 Jun 9;10(1):9283. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-66204-5.

Abstract

Ros/MucR is a widespread family of bacterial zinc-finger (ZF) containing proteins that integrate multiple functions such as virulence, symbiosis and/or cell cycle transcription. NMR solution structure of Ros DNA-binding domain (region 56-142, i.e. Ros87) has been solved by our group and shows that the prokaryotic ZF domain shows interesting structural and functional features that differentiate it from its eukaryotic counterpart as it folds in a significantly larger zinc-binding globular domain. We have recently proposed a novel functional model for this family of proteins suggesting that they may act as H-NS-'like' gene silencers. Indeed, the N-terminal region of this family of proteins appears to be responsible for the formation of functional oligomers. No structural characterization of the Ros N-terminal domain (region 1-55) is available to date, mainly because of serious solubility problems of the full-length protein. Here we report the first structural characterization of the N-terminal domain of the prokaryotic ZF family examining by means of MD and NMR the structural preferences of the full-length Ros protein from Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agrobacterium tumefaciens / genetics
  • Agrobacterium tumefaciens / metabolism*
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
  • Binding Sites
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / genetics*
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • Models, Molecular
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
  • Protein Domains*
  • Protein Structure, Secondary / genetics*
  • Zinc Fingers / genetics*

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • DNA-Binding Proteins