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Thermodynamic characterization of the folding coupled DNA binding by the monomeric transcription activator GCN4
1State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Abstract:
Dimerization is a widely believed critical requirement for the yeast transcriptional activator GCN4 specifically recognizing its DNA target sites. Nonetheless, the binding of the monomeric GCN4 to DNA target sites AP-1 and ATF/CREB was recently detected by kinetic studies. Here, for the first time, we present a detailed description of the thermodynamics of a monomeric peptide GCN4-br, the basic region (226-252) of GCN4, binding to AP-1, and ATF/CREB. GCN4 specifically binds to AP-1 and ATF/CREB in the monomeric form as shown by our circular dichroism thermal unfolding measurements. Isothermal titration calorimetry experiments indicate that the binding process of GCN4-br with DNA is enthalpically driven, accompanied by an unfavorable entropy change. The temperature dependence of DeltaH(0) reveals negative changes in heat capacity DeltaC(p): DeltaC(p) = -0.92 kJ. mol(-1) K(-1) and DeltaC(p) = -0.95 kJ. mol(-1) K(-1) for GCN4-br binding to AP-1 and ATF/CREB, respectively, which is a striking manifestation of GCN4-br specifically recognizing DNA target sites. These thermodynamic characteristics may give new insight into the mechanism by which GCN4 protein binds to DNA target sites for its transcriptional regulation.
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