MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library



    The Velvet Family of Fungal Regulators Contains a DNA-Binding Domain Structurally Similar to NF-kB


    Ahmed, Yasar Luqman and Gerke, Jennifer and Park, Hee-Soo and Bayram, Ozgur and Neumann, Piotr and Ni, Min and Dickmanns, Achim and Kim, Sun Chang and Yu, Jae-Hyuk and Braus, Gerhard H. and Ficner, Ralf (2013) The Velvet Family of Fungal Regulators Contains a DNA-Binding Domain Structurally Similar to NF-kB. PLoS Biology, 11 (12). e1001750. ISSN 1545-7885

    [img]
    Preview
    Download (2MB) | Preview


    Share your research

    Twitter Facebook LinkedIn GooglePlus Email more...



    Add this article to your Mendeley library


    Abstract

    Morphological development of fungi and their combined production of secondary metabolites are both acting in defence and protection. These processes are mainly coordinated by velvet regulators, which contain a yet functionally and structurally uncharacterized velvet domain. Here we demonstrate that the velvet domain of VosA is a novel DNA-binding motif that specifically recognizes an 11-nucleotide consensus sequence consisting of two motifs in the promoters of key developmental regulatory genes. The crystal structure analysis of the VosA velvet domain revealed an unforeseen structural similarity with the Rel homology domain (RHD) of the mammalian transcription factor NF-kB. Based on this structural similarity several conserved amino acid residues present in all velvet domains have been identified and shown to be essential for the DNA binding ability of VosA. The velvet domain is also involved in dimer formation as seen in the solved crystal structures of the VosA homodimer and the VosA-VelB heterodimer. These findings suggest that defence mechanisms of both fungi and animals might be governed by structurally related DNA-binding transcription factors.

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
    Keywords: Velvet Family; Fungal Regulators; DNA-Binding Domain; NF-kB;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Science and Engineering > Biology
    Item ID: 6242
    Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001750
    Depositing User: Ozgur Bayram
    Date Deposited: 09 Jul 2015 16:15
    Journal or Publication Title: PLoS Biology
    Publisher: Public Library of Science
    Refereed: Yes
    URI:
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

    Repository Staff Only(login required)

    View Item Item control page

    Downloads

    Downloads per month over past year

    Origin of downloads