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A study on the secondary structure of the metalloregulatory protein CueR: effect of pH, metal ions and DNA

Overview of Balogh RK et al.

AuthorsBalogh RK  Németh E  Jones NC  Hoffmann SV  Jancsó A  Gyurcsik B  
AffiliationDepartment of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry   University of Szeged   Dóm tér 7   Szeged   6720   Hungary. gyurcsik@chem.u-szeged.hu.  
JournalEur Biophys J
Year 2021

Abstract


The response of CueR towards environmental changes in solution was investigated. CueR is a bacterial metal ion selective transcriptional metalloregulator protein, which controls the concentration of copper ions in the cell. Although several articles have been devoted to the discussion of the structural and functional features of this protein, CueR has not previously been extensively characterized in solution. Here, we studied the effect of change in pH, temperature, and the presence of specific or non-specific binding partners on the secondary structure of CueR with circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. A rather peculiar reversible pH-dependent secondary structure transformation was observed, elucidated and supplemented with pK(a) estimation by PROPKA and CpHMD simulations suggesting an important role of His(76) and His(94) in this process. CD experiments revealed that the presence of DNA prevents this structural switch, suggesting that DNA locks CueR in the α-helical-rich form. In contrast to the non-cognate metal ions Hg(II), Cd(II) and Zn(II), the presence of the cognate Ag(I) ion affects the secondary structure of CueR, most probably by stabilizing the metal ion and DNA-binding domains of the protein.