Structure, function, and dynamics of the G alpha binding domain of Ric-8A.

Ric-8A is a 530-amino acid cytoplasmic molecular chaperone and guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for i, q, and 12/13 classes of heterortrimeric G protein alpha subunits (G alpha). We report the 2.2-angstrom crystal structure of the Ric-8A G alpha-binding domain with GEF activity, residues 1-452, and is phosphorylated at Ser435 and Thr440. Residues 1-429 adopt a superhelical fold comprised of Armadillo (ARM) and HEAT repeats, and the C terminus is disordered. One of the phosphorylated residues potentially binds to a basic cluster in an ARM motif. Amino acid sequence conservation and published hydrogen- deuterium exchange data indicate repeats 3 through 6 to be a putative G alpha-binding surface. Normal mode modeling of small-angle X-ray scattering data indicates that phosphorylation induces relative rotation between repeats 1-4, 5-6, and 7-9. 2D H-1-N-1(5)-TROSY spectra of [H-2, N-15]-labeled Gail in the presence of R452 reveals chemical shift perturbations of the C terminus and Gail residues involved in nucleotide binding

CprK crystal structures reveal mechanism for transcriptional control of halorespiration

Halorespiration is a bacterial respiratory process in which haloorganic compounds act as terminal electron acceptors. This process is controlled at transcriptional level by CprK, a member of the ubiquitous CRP-FNR family. Here we present the crystal structures of oxidized CprK in presence of the ligand ortho-chlorophenolacetic acid and of reduced CprK in absence of this ligand. These structures reveal that highly specific binding of chlorinated, rather than the corresponding non-chlorinated, phenolic compounds in the NH 2-terminal ß-barrels causes reorientation of these domains with respect to the central ¿-helix at the dimer interface. Unexpectedly, the COOH-terminal DNA-binding domains dimerize in the non-DNA binding state. We postulate the ligand-induced conformational change allows formation of interdomain contacts that disrupt the DNA domain dimer interface and leads to repositioning of the helix-turn-helix motifs. These structures provide a structural framework for further studies on transcriptional control by CRP-FNR homologs in general and of halorespiration regulation by CprK in particula