TALEs from a spring--superelasticity of Tal effector protein structures.

ABSTRACT: Transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) are DNA-related proteins that recognise and bind specific target sequences to manipulate gene expression. Recently determined crystal structures show that their common architecture reveals a superhelical overall structure that may undergo drastic conformational changes. To establish a link between structure and dynamics in TALE proteins we have employed coarse-grained elastic-network modelling of currently available structural data and implemented a force-probe setup that allowed us to investigate their mechanical behaviour in computer experiments. Based on the measured force-extension curves we conclude that TALEs exhibit superelastic dynamical properties allowing for large-scale global conformational changes along their helical axis, which r

SUBMITTER: Flechsig H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4196931 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature