DNA binding by NFAT1 as a dimer has been implicated in the activation of host and viral genes. Here we report a crystal structure of NFAT1 bound cooperatively as a dimer to the highly conserved kappa B site from the human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) long terminal repeat (LTR). This structure reveals a new mode of dimerization and protein-DNA recognition by the Rel homology region (RHR) of NFAT1. The two NFAT1 monomers form a complete circle around the kappa B DNA through protein-protein interactions mediated by both their N- and C-terminal subdomains. The major dimer interface, formed by the C-terminal domain, is asymmetric and substantially different from the symmetric dimer interface seen in other Rel family proteins. Comparison to other NFAT structures, including NFAT5 and the NFAT1-Fos-Jun-ARRE2 complex, reveals that NFAT1 adopts different conformations and its protein surfaces mediate distinct protein-protein interactions in the context of different DNA sites.

In our meta-analysis, lung ultrasound had significantly better sensitivity with similar specificity when compared to chest x-ray for the diagnosis of pediatric community acquired pneumonia.

DEAD-box RNA helicases of the bacterial DbpA subfamily are localized to their biological substrate when a carboxy-terminal RNA recognition motif (RRM) domain binds tightly and specifically to a segment of 23S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) that includes hairpin 92 of the peptidyl transferase center. A complex between a fragment of 23S rRNA and the RNA binding domain (RBD) of the Bacillus subtilis DbpA protein YxiN was crystallized and its structure determined to 2.9 Å resolution, revealing an RNA recognition mode that differs from those observed with other RRMs. The RBD is bound between two RNA strands at a three-way junction. Multiple phosphates of the RNA backbone interact with an electropositive band generated by lysines of the RBD. Nucleotides of the single-stranded loop of hairpin 92 interact with the RBD, including the guanosine base of G2553, which forms three hydrogen bonds with the peptide backbone. A G2553U mutation reduces the RNA binding affinity by two orders of magnitude, confirming that G2553 is a sequence specificity determinant in RNA binding. Binding of the RBD to 23S rRNA in the late stages of ribosome subunit maturation would position the ATP-binding duplex destabilization fragment of the protein for interaction with rRNA in the peptidyl transferase cleft of the subunit, allowing it to “melt out” unstable secondary structures and allow proper folding.

In large ribonucleoprotein machines, such as ribosomes and spliceosomes, RNA functions as an assembly scaffold as well as a critical catalytic component. Protein binding to the RNA scaffold can induce structural changes, which in turn modulate subsequent binding of other components. The spliceosomal U4/U6 di-snRNP contains extensively base paired U4 and U6 snRNAs, Snu13, Prp31, Prp3 and Prp4, seven Sm and seven LSm proteins. We have studied successive binding of all protein components to the snRNA duplex during di-snRNP assembly by electrophoretic mobility shift assay and accompanying conformational changes in the U4/U6 RNA 3-way junction by single-molecule FRET. Stems I and II of the duplex were found to co-axially stack in free RNA and function as a rigid scaffold during the entire assembly, but the U4 snRNA 5′ stem-loop adopts alternative orientations each stabilized by Prp31 and Prp3/4 binding accounting for altered Prp3/4 binding affinities in presence of Prp31.