In hyperthermophilic Archaea genomic DNA is from relaxed to positively supercoiled in vivo because of the action of the enzyme reverse gyrase, and this peculiarity is believed to be related to stabilization of DNA against denaturation. We report the identification and characterization of Smj12, a novel protein of Sulfolobus solfataricus, which is homologous to members of the so-called Bacterial-Archaeal family of regulators, found in multiple copies in Eubacteria and Archaea. Whereas other members of the family are sequence-specific DNA- binding proteins and have been implicated in transcriptional regulation, Smj12 is a nonspecific DNA-binding protein that stabilizes the double helix and induces positive supercoiling. Smj12 is not abundant, suggesting that it is not a general architectural protein, but rather has a specialized function and/or localization. Smj12 is the first protein with the described features identified in Archaea and might participate in control of superhelicity during DNA transactions.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M010611200 | DOI Listing |
Biophys J
January 2025
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Department of Chemistry, NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate Research, University of California, Irvine, California, USA. Electronic address:
In this work we present a minimal structure-based model of protein diffusional search along local DNA amid protein binding and unbinding events on the DNA, taking into account protein-DNA electrostatic interactions and hydrogen-bonding (HB) interactions or contacts at the interface. We accordingly constructed the protein diffusion-association/dissociation free energy surface and mapped it to 1D as the protein slides along DNA, maintaining the protein-DNA interfacial HB contacts that presumably dictate the DNA sequence information detection. Upon DNA helical path correction, the protein 1D diffusion rates along local DNA can be physically derived to be consistent with experimental measurements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Cancer
January 2025
Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Centre, Shanghai, China.
Background: To assess the utility of the TCGA molecular classification of endometrial cancer in a well-annotated, moderately sized, consecutive cohort of Chinese patients with ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC).
Methods: We performed DNA sequencing on 80 OCCC patients via a panel that contains 520 cancer-related genes. The TCGA molecular subtyping method was utilized for classification.
Nucleic Acids Res
January 2025
Department of Physics, 845 W Taylor St, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
Altered DNA dynamics at lesion sites are implicated in how DNA repair proteins sense damage within genomic DNA. Using laser temperature-jump (T-jump) spectroscopy combined with cytosine-analog Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) probes that sense local DNA conformations, we measured the intrinsic dynamics of DNA containing 3 base-pair mismatches recognized in vitro by Rad4 (yeast ortholog of XPC). Rad4/XPC recognizes diverse lesions from environmental mutagens and initiates nucleotide excision repair.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochem J
January 2025
Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, India.
The bacterial transcription terminator Rho is a hexameric ATP-dependent RNA helicase that dislodges elongating RNA polymerases. It has an N-terminal primary RNA binding site (PBS) on each subunit and a C-terminal secondary RNA binding site at the central channel. Here, we show that Rho also binds to linear longer double-stranded DNAs (dsDNA) and the circular plasmids non-specifically using its PBS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNucleic Acids Res
December 2024
Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) OT Gatersleben, Corrensstr 3, 06466 Seeland, Germany.
In eukaryotes, accurate chromosome segregation during cell division relies on the centromeric histone H3 variant, CENH3. Our previous work identified KINETOCHORE NULL2 (αKNL2) as a plant CENH3 assembly factor, which contains a centromere-targeting motif, CENPC-k, analogous to the CENPC motif found in CENP-C. We also demonstrated that αKNL2 can bind DNA in vitro in a sequence-independent manner, without the involvement of its CENPC-k motif.
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