The velvet family of fungal regulators contains a DNA-binding domain structurally similar to NF-κB

Yasar Luqman Ahmed; Jennifer Gerke; Hee-Soo Park; Özgür Bayram; Piotr Neumann; Min Ni; Achim Dickmanns; Sun Chang Kim; Jae-Hyuk Yu; Gerhard H Braus; Ralf Ficner

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001750

The velvet family of fungal regulators contains a DNA-binding domain structurally similar to NF-κB

PLoS Biol. 2013 Dec;11(12):e1001750. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001750. Epub 2013 Dec 31.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Molecular Structural Biology, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany.
² Department of Molecular Microbiology and Genetics, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany.
³ Departments of Bacteriology and Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Dae-Jon, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Morphological development of fungi and their combined production of secondary metabolites are both acting in defence and protection. These processes are mainly coordinated by velvet regulators, which contain a yet functionally and structurally uncharacterized velvet domain. Here we demonstrate that the velvet domain of VosA is a novel DNA-binding motif that specifically recognizes an 11-nucleotide consensus sequence consisting of two motifs in the promoters of key developmental regulatory genes. The crystal structure analysis of the VosA velvet domain revealed an unforeseen structural similarity with the Rel homology domain (RHD) of the mammalian transcription factor NF-κB. Based on this structural similarity several conserved amino acid residues present in all velvet domains have been identified and shown to be essential for the DNA binding ability of VosA. The velvet domain is also involved in dimer formation as seen in the solved crystal structures of the VosA homodimer and the VosA-VelB heterodimer. These findings suggest that defence mechanisms of both fungi and animals might be governed by structurally related DNA-binding transcription factors.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Aspergillus nidulans / genetics
Aspergillus nidulans / physiology
Consensus Sequence / genetics
Consensus Sequence / physiology
DNA, Fungal / genetics
DNA, Fungal / physiology
DNA-Binding Proteins / genetics*
DNA-Binding Proteins / physiology
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / genetics
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / physiology
Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal / genetics
Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal / physiology*
Genes, Fungal / genetics
Genes, Fungal / physiology
Genes, rel / genetics
Genes, rel / physiology
NF-kappa B / genetics*
NF-kappa B / physiology

Substances

DNA, Fungal
DNA-Binding Proteins
NF-kappa B

Grants and funding

This work was supported in Göttingen by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to GHB (SFB860 TP B06, BR1502/11-2). The work at UW-Madison was supported by the US National Science Foundation (IOS-0950850); USDA CSREES Hatch (WIS01195); and the Intelligent Synthetic Biology Center of Global Frontier Project (2011-0031955) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Republic of Korea. The work at KAIST (SCK) was supported by the Intelligent Synthetic Biology Center of Global Frontier Project (2011-0031955) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Republic of Korea to SCK. We acknowledge support for open access publication by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Open Access Publication Funds of the Göttingen University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.