TY - JOUR N1 - Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier Science. ID - open1761 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1047847715300368 IS - 3 A1 - Kaur, Gurmeet A1 - Subramanian, Srikrishna Y1 - 2015/09// N2 - Two putative oxidative-stress sensor proteins from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, PA1607 and PA1374, belong to the MarR family of transcription regulators and possess a unique mode of dimerization. In these proteins, in addition to the ?-helices involved in dimerization, inter-subunit contacts are strengthened by additional C-terminal ?-strands. Using sequence and structure analysis we show that these ?-strands constitute a novel segment-swapped zinc ribbon domain. We detect the presence of the zinc ribbon domain in MarR proteins from many bacterial homologs. While the metal-chelating residues of the zinc ribbons are absent in most members of this family, we could however identify several species of Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes that possess intact zinc-chelating sites. Conservation pattern of metal-chelating residues together with the extensive structural resemblance to zinc ribbons, in particular to the bridge-region of the dsDNA break repair protein Ku, suggests that the C-terminal ?-rich region of these proteins is a zinc ribbon. Sequence analysis also supports a distant evolutionary connection between the zinc ribbons of the MarR and Ku families. However, unlike Ku where the segment-swapped zinc ribbons play a role in DNA-binding and obligate dimerization, their primary role in MarR appears to be in dimerization and strengthening of inter-subunit contacts. PB - Elsevier Science JF - Journal of structural biology VL - 191 KW - Zinc ribbon; Segment-swapping; DNA-binding proteins; Helix-turn-helix domain; Dimerization; Multidrug resistance SN - 1095-8657 TI - The Ku-Mar zinc finger: A segment-swapped zinc ribbon in MarR-like transcription regulators related to the Ku bridge. SP - 281 EP - 9 ER -