title: Interactions of Escherichia coli thioredoxin, the processivity factor, with bacteriophage T7 DNA polymerase and helicase.
abstract: Escherichia coli thioredoxin binds to a unique flexible loop of 71 amino acid residues, designated the thioredoxin binding domain (TBD), located in the thumb subdomain of bacteriophage T7 gene 5 DNA polymerase. The initial designation of thioredoxin as a processivity factor was premature. Rather it remodels the TBD for interaction with DNA and the other replication proteins. The binding of thioredoxin exposes a number of basic residues on the TBD that lie over the duplex region of the primer-template and increases the processivity of nucleotide polymerization. Two small solvent-exposed loops (loops A and B) located within TBD electrostatically interact with the acidic C-terminal tail of T7 gene 4 helicase-primase, an interaction that is enhanced by the binding of thioredoxin. Several basic residues on the surface of thioredoxin in the polymerase-thioredoxin complex lie in close proximity to the TBD. One of these residues, lysine 36, is located proximal to loop A. The substitution of glutamate for lysine has a dramatic effect on the binding of gene 4 helicase to a DNA polymerase-thioredoxin complex lacking charges on loop B; binding is decreased 15-fold relative to that observed with wild-type thioredoxin. This defective interaction impairs the ability of T7 DNA polymerase-thioredoxin together with T7 helicase to mediate strand displacement synthesis. This is the first demonstration that thioredoxin interacts with replication proteins other than T7 DNA polymerase.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Sharmistha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.forename: Samir M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hamdan
authors.forename: Timothy E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Charles C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Richardson