The role of the carboxyl-terminal amino acid residues in Escherichia coli DNA topoisomerase III-mediated catalysis.

The role that the carboxyl-terminal amino acids of Escherichia coli DNA topoisomerase I (Topo I) and III (Topo III) play in catalysis was examined by comparing the properties of Topo III with those of a truncated enzyme lacking the generalized DNA binding domain of Topo III, Topo I, and a hybrid topoisomerase polypeptide containing the amino-terminal 605 amino acids of Topo III and the putative generalized DNA binding domain of Topo I. The deletion of the carboxyl-terminal 49 amino acids of Topo III decreases the affinity of the enzyme for its substrate, single-stranded DNA, by approximately 2 orders of magnitude and reduces Topo III-catalyzed relaxation of supercoiled DNA and Topo III-catalyzed resolution of DNA replication intermediates to a similar extent. Fusion of the carboxyl-terminal 312 amino acid residues of Topo I onto the truncated molecule stimulates topoisomerase-catalyzed relaxation 15-20-fold, to a level comparable with that of full-length Topo III.

Escherichia coli DNA topoisomerase III is a site-specific DNA binding protein that binds asymmetrically to its cleavage site.

The binding of DNA topoisomerase III (Topo III) to a single-stranded DNA substrate containing a strong cleavage site has been examined. The minimal substrate requirement for Topo III-catalyzed cleavage has been determined to consist of 7 bases; 6 bases 5' to the cleavage site and only 1 base 3' to the site. Nuclease P1 protection experiments indicate that the enzyme also binds to its substrate asymmetrically, protecting approximately 12 bases 5' to the cleavage site and only 2 bases 3' to the cleavage site.

Novel heteronuclear methods of assignment transfer from a diamagnetic to a paramagnetic protein: application to rat cytochrome b5.

15N and 1H resonance assignments for backbone and side-chain resonances of both equilibrium forms of rat ferricytochrome b5 have been obtained, using a combination of novel heteronuclear assignment transfer methods from the known assignments of the diamagnetic protein [Guiles, R. D., Basus, V.