The solution structure of the c-Jun leucine zipper domain has been determined to high resolution using a new calculation protocol designed to handle highly ambiguous sets of interproton distance restraints. The domain comprises a coiled coil of parallel alpha-helices in which most of the hydrophobic residues are buried at the highly symmetrical dimer interface; this interface extends over 10 helical turns and is the most elongated protein domain solved to date using NMR methods ...
The solution structure of the c-Jun leucine zipper domain has been determined to high resolution using a new calculation protocol designed to handle highly ambiguous sets of interproton distance restraints. The domain comprises a coiled coil of parallel alpha-helices in which most of the hydrophobic residues are buried at the highly symmetrical dimer interface; this interface extends over 10 helical turns and is the most elongated protein domain solved to date using NMR methods. The backbone fold is very similar to that seen in crystal structures of the GCN4 and Jun-Fos leucine zippers; however, in contrast with these crystal structures, the Jun leucine zipper dimer appears to be devoid of favorable intermolecular electrostatic interactions. A polar asparagine residue, located at the dimer interface, forms the sole point of asymmetry in the structure; furthermore, the side chain of this residue is disordered due to motional averaging. This residue, which is highly conserved in the leucine zipper family of transcription factors, provides a destabilizing influence that is likely to facilitate the rapid exchange of zipper strands in vivo.
Related Citations:
Calculation of Symmetric Multimer Structures from NMR Data Using a Priori Knowledge of the Monomer Structure, Co-Monomer Restraints, and Interface Mapping: The Case of Leucine Zippers O'Donoghue, S.I., King, G.F., Nilges, M. () To be published --: --
Structural Studies of the Leucine Zipper Domain of the Oncoprotein C-Jun Junius, F.K. (1995) Thesis --: --
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Characterization of the Jun Leucine Zipper Domain: Unusual Properties of Coiled-Coil Interfacial Polar Residues Junius, F.K., Mackay, J.P., Bubb, W.A., Jensen, S.A., Weiss, A.S., King, G.F. (1995) Biochemistry 34: 6164
The Solution Structure of the Leucine Zipper Motif of the Jun Oncoprotein Homodimer Junius, F.K., Weiss, A.S., King, G.F. (1993) Eur J Biochem 214: 415
Determination of the Structure of Symmetric Coiled-Coil Proteins from NMR Data: Application of the Leucine Zipper Proteins Jun and GCN4 O'Donoghue, S.I., Junius, F.K., King, G.F. (1993) Protein Eng 6: 557
Preferential Heterodimer Formation by Isolated Leucine Zippers from Fos and Jun O'Shea, E.K., Rutkowski, R., Stafford III, W.F., Kim, P.S. (1989) Science 245: 646
Organizational Affiliation:
Department of Biochemistry, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
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