biochemical UPDATE
Bioinformatic analysis of xenobiotic reactive metabolite target proteins and their interacting partners
Background:
Protein covalent binding by reactive metabolites of drugs, chemicals and natural products can lead to acute cytotoxicity. Recent rapid progress in reactive metabolite target protein identification has shown that adduction is surprisingly selective and inspired the hope that analysis of target proteins might reveal protein factors that differentiate target- vs. non-target proteins and illuminate [...]
DNA binding kinetics of two response regulators, PlnC and PlnD, from the bacteriocin regulon of Lactobacillus plantarum C11
Background:
Bacteriocin production in the lactic acid bacterium Lactobacillus plantarum C11 is regulated through a quorum sensing based pathway involving two highly homologous response regulators (59% identity and 76% similarity), PlnC as a transcriptional activator and PlnD as a repressor. Previous in vitro studies have shown that both regulators bind, as homodimers, to the same DNA [...]
Analysis of DNA relaxation and cleavage activities of recombinant Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA topoisomerase I from a new expression and purification protocol
Background:
Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA topoisomerase I is an attractive target for discovery of novel TB drugs that act by enhancing the accumulation of the topoisomerase-DNA cleavage product. It shares a common transesterification domain with other type IA DNA topoisomerases. There is, however, no homology between the C-terminal DNA binding domains of Escherichia coli and M. tuberculosis [...]
Insights into the role of Val45 and Gln182 of Escherichia coli MutY in DNA substrate binding and specificity
Background:
Escherichia coli MutY (EcMutY) reduces mutagenesis by removing adenines paired with guanines or 7,8-dihydro-8-oxo-guanines (8-oxoG). V45 and Q182 of EcMutY are considered to be the key determinants of adenine specificity. Both residues are spatially close to each other in the active site and are conserved in MutY family proteins but not in Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum Mig.MthI [...]