Cys2-His2 (C2H2) zinc finger domains were originally identified as DNA binding domains, and uncharacterized domains are typically assumed to bind DNA. However, a growing body of evidence suggests an important and widespread role for these domains in protein binding. Over 100 C2H2 zinc finger-protein interactions have been described. This study uses common bioinformatics tools to identify sequence features that predict a DNA- or protein-binding function. Several issues, including uncertainties about the full functional capabilities of the zinc fingers, complicated these efforts. Therefore, an unbiased approach which directly examined the potential for zinc fingers to facilitate DNA or protein interactions was used to determine the full functional capabilities of the C2H2 domains in two model proteins, human OLF-1/EBF associated zinc finger (OAZ) protein and Zif268. OAZ contains 30 zinc fingers in six clusters, some of which have been previously indicated in DNA or protein interactions. Zif268 is a well-known DNA binding protein with three C2H2 domains. DNA binding was assessed using a target site selection (CAST) assay, and protein binding was assessed using a yeast two-hybrid assay. Results indicate that clusters known to bind DNA could facilitate specific protein interactions, but clusters known to bind protein did not facilitate specific DNA interactions, indicating that DNA binding is a more restricted function of zinc fingers than has previously been recognized. These results also suggest that the role of C2H2 zinc finger domains in protein interactions has probably been underestimated. The implication of these findings for the prediction of zinc finger function is discussed.

II tipo restrikcijos endonukleazės atpažįsta specifines DNR sekas ir kerpa DNR šiose sekose arba šalia jų. BpuJI, atpažįstanti 5’-CCCGT seką, skiriasi nuo kitų fermentų tuo, kad jos kirpimo vieta yra labai variabili. Čia parodoma, kad BpuJI yra dimeras, sudarytas iš dviejų monomerų, kurie turi po du atskirus domenus. BpuJI N domenas atpažįsta taikinį kaip monomeras, o C-domenas pasižymi nukleaziniu aktyvumu ir dimerizuojasi. Apo-fermento nukleazinis aktyvumas yra nuslopintas. N-domenams atpažinus taikinį, aktyvuojamas C-domenas, kuris perkerpa DNR šalia taikinio. Be to, aktyvuotas C-domenas yra nespecifinė nukleazė, linkusi nukirpti ~3 nt nuo buko dvigrandės DNR galo. Taigi, BpuJI DNR karpymo pobūdis yra labai sudėtingas. Bioinformatinė analizė ir kryptinga mutagenezė parodė, kad BpuJI C-domenas turi PD-(D/E)XK struktūrinę sanklodą ir yra panašus į archėjų Holidėjaus jungtis karpančias nukleazes. Išsprendus 1,3 Å skiriamosios gebos BpuJI N-domeno/DNR komplekso erdvinė struktūrą, paaiškėjo, kad šį domeną sudaro du „sparnuotą“ spiralė-linkis-spiralė motyvą turintys subdomenai. BpuJI taikinį atpažįsta aminorūgštys, esančios N-rankoje ir abiejų spiralė-linkis-spiralė motyvų atpažinimo spiralėse. BpuJI N-domenas yra labiausiai panašus į Nt.BspD6I nukleazę, kerpančią vieną DNR grandinę. Nt.BspD6I/DNR komplekso struktūros modelis rodo, kad Nt.BspD6I ir BpuJI taikinį atpažįstantys struktūriniai elementai yra panašūs. / Type II restriction endonucleases recognize specific DNA sequences and cleave DNA at fixed positions within or close to this sequence. BpuJI recognizes the 5’-CCCGT sequence, but in contrast to other enzymes its cleavage site is very variable. This study shows that BpuJI is a dimer in solution and consists of two separate domains. The N-domain binds to the target sequence as a monomer, while the C-domain is responsible for nuclease activity and dimerization. The nuclease activity is repressed in the apo-enzyme and becomes activated upon specific DNA binding by the N-domains. The activated C-domain cleaves DNA near the target site. In addition, it possesses an end-directed nuclease activity and preferentially cuts ~3 nt from the 3’ terminus. This leads to a very complicated pattern of DNA cleavage. Bioinformatics and mutational analysis revealed that the BpuJI C-domain harbours a PD (D/E)XK active site and is structurally related to archaeal Holliday junction resolvases. The crystal structure of the BpuJI N-domain bound to cognate DNA was solved at 1.3 Å resolution. It revealed two winged-helix subdomains, D1 and D2. The recognition of the target sequence is achieved the amino acid residues located on both the HTH motifs and an N-terminal arm. The BpuJI DNA recognition domain is most similar to the nicking endonuclease Nt.BspD6I. The modelling suggests that Nt.BspD6I could share the specificity-determining regions with BpuJI.

Type II restriction endonucleases recognize specific DNA sequences and cleave DNA at fixed positions within or close to this sequence. BpuJI recognizes the 5’-CCCGT sequence, but in contrast to other enzymes its cleavage site is very variable. This study shows that BpuJI is a dimer in solution and consists of two separate domains. The N-domain binds to the target sequence as a monomer, while the C-domain is responsible for nuclease activity and dimerization. The nuclease activity is repressed in the apo-enzyme and becomes activated upon specific DNA binding by the N-domains. The activated C-domain cleaves DNA near the target site. In addition, it possesses an end-directed nuclease activity and preferentially cuts ~3 nt from the 3’ terminus. This leads to a very complicated pattern of DNA cleavage. Bioinformatics and mutational analysis revealed that the BpuJI C-domain harbours a PD (D/E)XK active site and is structurally related to archaeal Holliday junction resolvases. The crystal structure of the BpuJI N-domain bound to cognate DNA was solved at 1.3 Å resolution. It revealed two winged-helix subdomains, D1 and D2. The recognition of the target sequence is achieved the amino acid residues located on both the HTH motifs and an N-terminal arm. The BpuJI DNA recognition domain is most similar to the nicking endonuclease Nt.BspD6I. The modelling suggests that Nt.BspD6I could share the specificity-determining regions with BpuJI. / II tipo restrikcijos endonukleazės atpažįsta specifines DNR sekas ir kerpa DNR šiose sekose arba šalia jų. BpuJI, atpažįstanti 5’-CCCGT seką, skiriasi nuo kitų fermentų tuo, kad jos kirpimo vieta yra labai variabili. Čia parodoma, kad BpuJI yra dimeras, sudarytas iš dviejų monomerų, kurie turi po du atskirus domenus. BpuJI N domenas atpažįsta taikinį kaip monomeras, o C-domenas pasižymi nukleaziniu aktyvumu ir dimerizuojasi. Apo-fermento nukleazinis aktyvumas yra nuslopintas. N-domenams atpažinus taikinį, aktyvuojamas C-domenas, kuris perkerpa DNR šalia taikinio. Be to, aktyvuotas C-domenas yra nespecifinė nukleazė, linkusi nukirpti ~3 nt nuo buko dvigrandės DNR galo. Taigi, BpuJI DNR karpymo pobūdis yra labai sudėtingas. Bioinformatinė analizė ir kryptinga mutagenezė parodė, kad BpuJI C-domenas turi PD-(D/E)XK struktūrinę sanklodą ir yra panašus į archėjų Holidėjaus jungtis karpančias nukleazes. Išsprendus 1,3 Å skiriamosios gebos BpuJI N-domeno/DNR komplekso erdvinė struktūrą, paaiškėjo, kad šį domeną sudaro du „sparnuotą“ spiralė-linkis-spiralė motyvą turintys subdomenai. BpuJI taikinį atpažįsta aminorūgštys, esančios N-rankoje ir abiejų spiralė-linkis-spiralė motyvų atpažinimo spiralėse. BpuJI N-domenas yra labiausiai panašus į Nt.BspD6I nukleazę, kerpančią vieną DNR grandinę. Nt.BspD6I/DNR komplekso struktūros modelis rodo, kad Nt.BspD6I ir BpuJI taikinį atpažįstantys struktūriniai elementai yra panašūs.

No description available.

is a functionally diverse large group of proteins sharing a jelly roll β-barrel fold. An enzymatic member 3-hydroxyanthranilate-3,4-dioxygenase (HAO) and a non-enzymatic member pirin, which is a human nuclear metalloprotein of unknown function present in all human tissues, were selected for structural and functional studies in this dissertation work. HAO is an important enzyme for tryptophan catabolism and for 2-nitrobenzoic acid biodegradation. In this work, seven catalytic intermediate were captured in HAO single crystals, enabling for the first time a nearly complete structural snapshot viewing of the entire molecular oxygen activation and insertion mechanism in an iron- and O2-depedent enzyme. The rapid catalytic turnover rate was found achieved in large part by protein dynamics that facilitates O2 binding to the catalytic iron, which is bound to the enzyme by a facile 2-His-1-carboxylate ligand motif. An iron storage and chaperon mechanism was also discovered in the bacterial source of this enzyme, which led to a proposed novel biological function of a mononuclear iron-sulfur center. Although human pirin protein shares the same structural fold with HAO, its iron ion is coordinated by a 3-His-1-carboxylate ligand motif. Pirin belongs to a subset of proteins whose members are playing regulatory functions in the superfamily. In this work, pirin is shown to act as a redox sensor for the NF-κB transcription factor, a critical mediator of intracellular signaling that has been linked to cellular responses to pro-inflammatory signals which controls the expression of a vast array of genes involved in immune and stress responses.

Biomolecular condensates are dynamic intracellular structural units or distinct reaction spaces that can form by condensation of their constituents from the cytoplasm or the nucleoplasm. It is generally not clear yet, how dynamic, continuum-like condensate properties relevant for large-scale intracellular organisation emerge from the interplay of proteins and nucleic acids on the level of few individual molecules. With this work, we expand the portfolio of methods to investigate the role of protein-nucleic acid interactions in biomolecular condensates by introducing optical tweezers-based mechanical micromanipulation of single DNA molecules combined with confocal fluorescence microscopy to the field. We used this approach to characterise how the two landmark proteins1 Fused in Sarcoma and Heterochromatin Protein 1 form condensates with single DNA molecules. Fused in Sarcoma (FUS) is a key protein for various aspects of the nucleic acid metabolism and evidence is accumulating that biomolecular condensation is crucial for both, its physiological functions and its role in pathological aggregate formation. In this thesis, we directly visualised the formation of FUS condensates with single molecules of ssDNA and dsDNA. We showed that the formation of these microcondensates is based on nucleic acid scaffolding. We explored their mechanical properties and found that the mechanical tension that (FUS dsDNA) condensates can withstand or exert is in the range below 2 pN. We further demonstrated that already on this fundamental scale and with limited amounts of constituent molecules, dynamic properties like shape relaxations, reminiscent of viscoelastic materials, can emerge. Heterochromatin Protein 1 (HP1) is a prototypic chromatin organising factor that is in particular involved in the formation of dynamically compacted heterochromatin domains. HP1 forms biomolecular condensates and compacts DNA strands in vitro. In this work, we measured the influence of HP1 on the mechanical properties of individual DNA molecules and demonstrated the response of HP1-DNA condensates to different environmental conditions. We contributed a methodological framework to characterise viscoelastic-like systems on the single molecule level. Taken together, our optical tweezers-based approach revealed structural and mechanical properties of prototypic protein-DNA condensates and hence helped to elucidate mechanisms underlying their formation in unprecedented spatiotemporal and mechanical detail. We anticipate that this method can become a valuable tool to investigate how large-scale intracellular organisation based on protein-nucleic acid condensation emerges from interactions between individual building blocks.

DNA damage occurs to all living things; its subsequent repair is a crucial component of life. The most dangerous, and potentially most useful form of DNA damage is the double strand break (DSB). A DSB is defined by breaks occurring to both sugar phosphate backbones in close enough proximity that they lead to the separation of the two pieces of the DNA. This type of damage will kill the cell if left unrepaired. It is the most lethal type of DNA damage. Most living organisms have also developed ways to take advantage of DSBs through their repair systems, primarily as a means of introducing genetic variation. There are two primary DSB repair pathways across life: homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ). The focus of this work is NHEJ. NHEJ is known as “error-prone” because it does not use a homologous template and can introduce small addition or deletion mutations during the repair process. This pathway has been extensively studied in eukaryotes and is known as the primary form of DSB repair in mammalian cells, however the prokaryotic NHEJ system was more recently identified and as a result, a void of information surrounds it. NHEJ is comprised of 3 core steps: DSB recognition and binding, DNA end processing, and ligation. In the eukaryotic version of NHEJ these 3 steps involve a plethora of factors; conversely, in the prokaryotic version, the same functionality is accomplished by just 2 proteins, bacterial Ku and LigD. The focus of this research is Ku: the DNA end-binding protein responsible for identifying the DSB, binding and protecting the DNA end, as well as recruiting LigD to the break. Ku is composed of 2 domains, the first of which is predicted to be highly homologous to eukaryotic Ku’s equivalent domain; this is the core domain which forms a ring-like structure that DNA threads through. The second is completely unique to bacterial Ku, it is the C-terminal domain, which can further be split into 2 sub-domains, the minimal C-terminus, and the extended C-terminus. The sub-domains are defined by their level of conservation across bacterial species, with the minimal C-terminus being highly conserved, while the extended C-terminus is highly variable. Using DNA-binding assays and several mutant constructs which affect the C-terminal domain, I show that this C-terminus is unexpectedly responsible for destabilizing the Ku-DNA interaction. This observation leads me to hypothesize that maintaining a weak interaction with DNA is important for Ku because of the other proteins which need access to the DNA (e.g. replicative helicase). While Ku is bound, it could be capable of blocking regions of DNA, in turn blocking other vital cellular processes like replication. Ku maintaining a lower affinity for DNA should facilitate Ku displacement by other proteins. A tighter binding would restrict Ku’s freedom to move on DNA making it more likely to inhibit other critical pathways. To better understand Ku, I attempted to solve the Ku structure using X-ray crystallography, and was able to achieve crystals of Ku, however diffraction was too limited for a structure. Another way to investigate the validity of my proposed model is to use a biophysical approach with atomic force microscopy (AFM) to visualize protein-DNA complexes. The initial work has established key controls for future Ku-DNA AFM work by imaging and analyzing Ku on its own. Interest in bacterial NHEJ is two-fold from the antimicrobial perspective: NHEJ is a highly mutagenic pathway, so it serves as a proverbial well for differentiation and thus the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR); NHEJ is very important in bacteria that enter a stationary phase due to their lack of a homologous piece of DNA for HR. Thus, NHEJ inhibition could be useful for slowing bacterial evolution and potentially as a treatment for infections such a Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is known to lie dormant in host macrophages for long periods of time. To investigate the viability of NHEJ inhibition, I had begun the process of creating ∆ku strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to simulate Ku inhibition under various conditions. This Ku project is the focus of the first two chapters, however, during my Master’s degree I participated in 2 other major projects. The third chapter details a bacterial DNA damage tolerance pathway, which similarly is highly mutagenic and poorly characterized: the ImuABC translesion synthesis polymerase complex. The fourth and final chapter details the work for a Journal of Visualized Experiments article meant to highlight the benefits of AFM as a means of studying protein-DNA interactions. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

<p>Transcriptional regulation has been studied intensively in recent decades. One important aspect of this regulation is the interaction between regulatory proteins, such as transcription factors (TF) and nucleosomes, and the genome. Different high-throughput techniques have been invented to map these interactions genome-wide, including ChIP-based methods (ChIP-chip, ChIP-seq, etc.), nuclease digestion methods (DNase-seq, MNase-seq, etc.), and others. However, a single experimental technique often only provides partial and noisy information about the whole picture of protein-DNA interactions. Therefore, the overarching goal of this dissertation is to provide computational developments for jointly modeling different experimental datasets to achieve a holistic inference on the protein-DNA interaction landscape. </p><p>We first present a computational framework that can incorporate the protein binding information in MNase-seq data into a thermodynamic model of protein-DNA interaction. We use a correlation-based objective function to model the MNase-seq data and a Markov chain Monte Carlo method to maximize the function. Our results show that the inferred protein-DNA interaction landscape is concordant with the MNase-seq data and provides a mechanistic explanation for the experimentally collected MNase-seq fragments. Our framework is flexible and can easily incorporate other data sources. To demonstrate this flexibility, we use prior distributions to integrate experimentally measured protein concentrations. </p><p>We also study the ability of DNase-seq data to position nucleosomes. Traditionally, DNase-seq has only been widely used to identify DNase hypersensitive sites, which tend to be open chromatin regulatory regions devoid of nucleosomes. We reveal for the first time that DNase-seq datasets also contain substantial information about nucleosome translational positioning, and that existing DNase-seq data can be used to infer nucleosome positions with high accuracy. We develop a Bayes-factor-based nucleosome scoring method to position nucleosomes using DNase-seq data. Our approach utilizes several effective strategies to extract nucleosome positioning signals from the noisy DNase-seq data, including jointly modeling data points across the nucleosome body and explicitly modeling the quadratic and oscillatory DNase I digestion pattern on nucleosomes. We show that our DNase-seq-based nucleosome map is highly consistent with previous high-resolution maps. We also show that the oscillatory DNase I digestion pattern is useful in revealing the nucleosome rotational context around TF binding sites. </p><p>Finally, we present a state-space model (SSM) for jointly modeling different kinds of genomic data to provide an accurate view of the protein-DNA interaction landscape. We also provide an efficient expectation-maximization algorithm to learn model parameters from data. We first show in simulation studies that the SSM can effectively recover underlying true protein binding configurations. We then apply the SSM to model real genomic data (both DNase-seq and MNase-seq data). Through incrementally increasing the types of genomic data in the SSM, we show that different data types can contribute complementary information for the inference of protein binding landscape and that the most accurate inference comes from modeling all available datasets. </p><p>This dissertation provides a foundation for future research by taking a step toward the genome-wide inference of protein-DNA interaction landscape through data integration.</p> / Dissertation

The specific recognition of the DNA is crucial for the correct functioning of the cell. Although its mechanisms are extensively studied, the actual process is not yet fully understood, partly due to the variance observed in readout mechanisms so far. In this work, a particular type of specific recognition is examined: the shape readout in the DNA minor groove. Based on a sta- tistical analysis of three-dimensional structures of protein-DNA complexes acquired from the Protein Data Bank, I propose a previously unrecorded readout mechanism of widened minor grooves by hydrophobic amino acids. In addition, the effect of DNA sequence on the topography of the contacted locus, the preferred secondary structures and the interaction between the protein and DNA are explored, as well as the relative information amount of examined features concerning the DNA deformation. 1

No description available.