Molecular sled sequences are common in mammalian proteins.

Nucleic Acids Res
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Recent work revealed a new class of molecular machines called molecular sleds, which are small basic molecules that bind and slide along DNA with the ability to carry cargo along DNA. Here, we performed biochemical and single-molecule flow stretching assays to investigate the basis of sliding activity in molecular sleds. In particular, we identified the functional core of pVIc, the first molecular sled characterized; peptide functional groups that control sliding activity; and propose a model for the sliding activity of molecular sleds. We also observed widespread DNA binding and sliding activity among basic polypeptide sequences that implicate mammalian nuclear localization sequences and many cell penetrating peptides as molecular sleds. These basic protein motifs exhibit weak but physiologically relevant sequence-nonspecific DNA affinity. Our findings indicate that many mammalian proteins contain molecular sled sequences and suggest the possibility that substantial undiscovered sliding activity exists among nuclear mammalian proteins.

Year of Publication
2016
Journal
Nucleic Acids Res
Volume
44
Issue
5
Pages
2266-73
Date Published
2016 Mar 18
ISSN
1362-4962
URL
DOI
10.1093/nar/gkw035
PubMed ID
26857546
PubMed Central ID
PMC4797294
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