Specificity of hydroxylmethyluracil-containing DNA for transcription factor 1: Structural insights

✍ Scribed by Hai Minh Vu; Laura B. Pasternack; David R. Kearns

• Book ID: 101241175
• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 333 KB
• Volume: 52
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-3525
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0282(1999)52:1<57::aid-bip3>3.0.co;2-k

✦ Synopsis

The genomic materials from some Bacillus subtilis bacteriophages are found to contain 5-(hydroxymethyl)-2'-deoxyuridine in place of thymine. Phage-encoded proteins such as transcription factor 1 specifically and preferentially bind to the minor grooves of these hmU-containing DNA but not to thymine-containing DNA. Data from electrophoretic mobility shift assays suggest that the inherent, localized flexibility of hmU-DNA, which is sequence-specific, is responsible for its discriminative binding. We discuss here, from the NMR-derived structural point of view, how differential DNA flexibility can contribute to specific binding of TF1 to hmU-DNA.