Structural studies of the activation of the two component receiver domain NTRC by multidimensional heteronuclear NMR

Abstract

Multidimensional heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy was used to investigate the N-terminal domain of the transcriptional enhancer NTRC (NiTrogen Regulatory protein C). This domain belongs to the family of receiver domains of two-component regulatory systems involved in signal transduction. Phosphorylation of NTRC at D54 leads to an activated form of the molecule which stimulates transcription of genes involved in nitrogen regulation. Three and four dimensional NMR techniques were used to determine an intermediate resolution structure of the unphosphorylated, inactive form of the N-terminal domain of NTRC. The structure is comprised of five {alpha}-helices and a five-stranded {beta}-sheet in a ({beta}/{alpha}){sub 5} topology. Analysis of the backbone dynamics of NTRC indicate that helix 4 and strand 5 are significantly more flexible than the rest of the secondary structure of the protein and that the loops making up the active site are flexible. The short lifetime of phospho-NTRC hampers the study of this form. However, conditions for determining the resonance assignments and, possibly, the three dimensional structure of phosphorylated NTRC have been obtained. Tentative assignments of the phosphorylated form indicate that the majority of the changes that NTRC experiences upon phosphorylation occur in helix 3, strand 4, helix 4, strand 5, and the loop between strand 5 and helix 5 (the 3445 face of NTRC) as well as near the site of phosphorylation. In order to examine a stable, activated form of the protein, constitutively active mutants of NTRC were investigated