title: Sequence requirements for coiled-coils: analysis with lambda repressor-GCN4 leucine zipper fusions.
abstract: A genetic system was developed in Escherichia coli to study leucine zippers with the amino-terminal domain of bacteriophage lambda repressor as a reporter for dimerization. This system was used to analyze the importance of the amino acid side chains at eight positions that form the hydrophobic interface of the leucine zipper dimer from the yeast transcriptional activator, GCN4. When single amino acid substitutions were analyzed, most functional variants contained hydrophobic residues at the dimer interface, while most nonfunctional sequence variants contained strongly polar or helix-breaking residues. In multiple randomization experiments, however, many combinations of hydrophobic residues were found to be nonfunctional, and leucines in the heptad repeat were shown to have a special function in leucine zipper dimerization.
authors: Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139.
authors: J C
authors: JC
authors: Hu
authors: E K
authors: EK
authors: O'Shea
authors: P S
authors: PS
authors: Kim
authors: R T
authors: RT
authors: Sauer
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000235:genetics*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016350:Leucine Zippers / Q000235:genetics*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D010641:Phenotype; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011494:Protein Kinases; D011897:Random Allocation; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; D011494:Protein Kinases