Crystal structure of the arginine repressor protein in complex with the DNA operator from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The arginine repressor (ArgR) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is a gene product encoded by the open reading frame Rv1657. It regulates the L-arginine concentration in cells by interacting with ARG boxes in the promoter regions of the arginine biosynthesis and catabolism operons. Here we present a 2.5-A structure of MtbArgR in complex with a 16-bp DNA operator in the absence of arginine. A biological trimer of the protein-DNA complex is formed via the crystallographic 3-fold symmetry axis. The N-terminal domain of MtbArgR has a winged helix-turn-helix motif that binds to the major groove of the DNA. This structure shows that, in the absence of arginine, the ArgR trimer can bind three ARG box half-sites. It also reveals the structure of the whole MtbArgR molecule itself containing both N-terminal and C-terminal domains.