Allosterism and signal transfer in DNA. Issue 15 (14th June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Balaceanu, Alexandra; Pérez, Alberto; Dans, Pablo D; Orozco, Modesto
• Is Part Of: Nucleic acids research. Volume 46:Issue 15(2018)
• Page Start: 7554
• Page End: 7565
• Publication Date: 2018-06-14
• Subjects: Nucleic acids -- Periodicals; Molecular biology -- Periodicals; 572.805
• DOI: 10.1093/nar/gky549
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-1048

Abstract

Abstract: We analysed the basic mechanisms of signal transmission in DNA and the origins of the allostery exhibited by systems such as the ternary complex BAMHI–DNA–GRDBD. We found that perturbation information generated by a primary protein binding event travels as a wave to distant regions of DNA following a hopping mechanism. However, such a structural perturbation is transient and does not lead to permanent changes in the DNA geometry and interaction properties at the secondary binding site. The BAMHI–DNA–GRDBD allosteric mechanism does not occur through any traditional models: direct (protein-protein), indirect (reorganization of the secondary site) readout or solvent-release. On the contrary, it is generated by a subtle and less common entropy-mediated mechanism, which might have an important role to explain other DNA-mediated cooperative effects.