Purification, crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of DehI, a group I α-­haloacid dehalogenase from Pseudomonas putida strain PP3

The α-haloacid dehalogenase DehI from P. putida strain PP3 was cloned into a vector with an N-terminal His tag and expressed in E. coli Nova Blue strain. Purified protein was crystallized in a primitive monoclinic form and a complete native data set was collected and analysed

Termination of replication in bacteria

Termination is the final stage of a round of replication in bacteria during which DNA replication is completed. In the case of a circular chromosome, this occurs when the two replication forks, progressing in opposite directions, meet and fuse in a specific region of the chromosome which is generally diametrically opposed to the site of initiation of DNA replication

Controlling leucine zipper specificity with interfacial hydrophobic residues

Dimerisation of leucine zippers results from the parallel association of alpha-helices to form a coiled coil. Coiled coils comprise a heptad repeat, denoted as (abcdefg)(n), where residues at positions a and d are hydrophobic and constitute the core of the dimer interface. Charged amino acids at the e and g positions of the coiled coil are thought to be the major influence on dimerisation specificity through the formation of attractive and repulsive interhelical electrostatic interactions. However, the variability of a-position residues in leucine zipper transcription factors prompted us to investigate their influence on dimerisation specificity. We demonstrate that mutation of a single interfacial a-position Ala residue to either Val, Ile or Leu significantly alters the homo- and heterodimerisation specificities of the leucine zipper domain from the c-Jun transcription factor. These results illustrate the importance of a-position residues in controlling leucine zipper dimerisation specificity in addition to providing substantial contributions to dimer stability