Imperial College London
Alternate

Professor Martin Buck FRS

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences

Senior Research Investigator
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 5442m.buck

 
 
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Location

 

448Sir Alexander Fleming BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Ye:2020:10.7554/elife.52125,
author = {Ye, F and Kotta-Loizou, I and Jovanovic, M and Liu, X and Dryden, DT and Buck, M and Zhang, X},
doi = {10.7554/elife.52125},
journal = {eLife},
title = {Structural basis of transcription inhibition by the DNA mimic protein Ocr of bacteriophage T7.},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.52125},
volume = {9},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Bacteriophage T7 infects Escherichia coli and evades the host restriction/modification system. The Ocr protein of T7 was shown to exist as a dimer mimicking DNA and to bind to host restriction enzymes, thus preventing the degradation of the viral genome by the host. Here we report that Ocr can also inhibit host transcription by directly binding to bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP) and competing with the recruitment of RNAP by sigma factors. Using cryo electron microscopy, we determined the structures of Ocr bound to RNAP. The structures show that an Ocr dimer binds to RNAP in the cleft, where key regions of sigma bind and where DNA resides during transcription synthesis, thus providing a structural basis for the transcription inhibition. Our results reveal the versatility of Ocr in interfering with host systems and suggest possible strategies that could be exploited in adopting DNA mimicry as a basis for forming novel antibiotics.
AU  - Ye,F
AU  - Kotta-Loizou,I
AU  - Jovanovic,M
AU  - Liu,X
AU  - Dryden,DT
AU  - Buck,M
AU  - Zhang,X
DO  - 10.7554/elife.52125
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 2050-084X
TI  - Structural basis of transcription inhibition by the DNA mimic protein Ocr of bacteriophage T7.
T2  - eLife
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.52125
UR  - https://elifesciences.org/articles/52125
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/76710
VL  - 9
ER  -
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