Nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) is central to the repair of double-stranded DNA breaks throughout the cell cycle and plays roles in the development of the immune system. Although three-dimensional structures of most components of NHEJ have been defined, those of the catalytic region of DNA ligase IV (LigIV), a specialized DNA ligase known to work in NHEJ, and of Artemis have remained unresolved. Here, we report the crystal structure at 2.4 Å resolution of the catalytic region of LigIV (residues 1-609) in complex with an Artemis peptide. We describe interactions of the DNA-binding domain of LigIV with the continuous epitope of Artemis, which, together, form a three-helix bundle. A kink in the first helix of LigIV introduced by a conserved VPF motif gives rise to a hydrophobic pocket, which accommodates a conserved tryptophan from Artemis. We provide structural insights into features of LigIV among human DNA ligases.
Pubmed ID: 23523427 RIS Download
Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.
Non-profit academic organization for research and services in bioinformatics. Provides freely available data from life science experiments, performs basic research in computational biology, and offers user training programme, manages databases of biological data including nucleic acid, protein sequences, and macromolecular structures. Part of EMBL.
View all literature mentionsSoftware for macromolecular model building, model completion and validation, and protein modelling using X-ray data. Coot displays maps and models and allows model manipulations such as idealization, rigid-body fitting, ligand search, Ramachandran plots, non-crystallographic symmetry and more. Source code is available.
View all literature mentions