title: Crystal structure and mechanism of histone acetylation of the yeast GCN5 transcriptional coactivator.
abstract: The yeast GCN5 (yGCN5) transcriptional coactivator functions as a histone acetyltransferase (HAT) to promote transcriptional activation. Here, we present the high resolution crystal structure of the HAT domain of yGCN5 and probe the functional importance of a conserved glutamate residue. The structure reveals a central protein core associated with AcCoA binding that appears to be structurally conserved among a superfamily of N-acetyltransferases, including yeast histone acetyltransferase 1 and Serratia marcescens aminoglycoside 3-N-acetyltransferase. A pronounced cleft lying above this core, and flanked by N- and C-terminal regions that show no sequence conservation within N-acetyltransferase enzymes, is implicated by cross-species conservation and mutagenesis studies to be a site for histone substrate binding and catalysis. Located at the bottom of this cleft is a conserved glutamate residue (E173) that is in position to play an important catalytic role in histone acetylation. Functional analysis of an E173Q mutant yGCN5 protein implicates glutamate 173 to function as a general base for catalysis. Together, a correlation of the yGCN5 structure with functionally debilitating yGCN5 mutations provides a paradigm for understanding the structure/function relationships of the growing number of transcriptional regulators that function as histone acetyltransferase enzymes.
authors.affiliation: The Wistar Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Trievel
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Rojas
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Sterner
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Venkataramani
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Allis
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Marmorstein
mesh_terms: D000107:Acetylation; D000123:Acetyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D003196:Computer Graphics; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D051548:Histone Acetyltransferases; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000378:metabolism*; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D000099224:p300-CBP-Associated Factor
chemical_list: D000123:Acetyltransferases; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D051548:Histone Acetyltransferases; D006657:Histones; D011494:Protein Kinases; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; C501392:GCN5 protein, S cerevisiae; D000099224:p300-CBP-Associated Factor