Localization of ASV integrase-DNA contacts by site-directed crosslinking and their structural analysis

Background

We applied crosslinking techniques as a first step in preparation of stable avian sarcoma virus (ASV) integrase (IN)-DNA complexes for crystallographic investigations. These results were then compared with the crystal structures of the prototype foamy virus (PFV) intasome and with published data for other retroviral IN proteins.

Methodology/Results

Photoaffinity crosslinking and site-directed chemical crosslinking were used to localize the sites of contacts with DNA substrates on the surface of ASV IN. Sulfhydryl groups of cysteines engineered into ASV IN and amino-modified nucleotides in DNA substrates were used for attachment of photocrosslinkers. Analysis of photocrosslinking data revealed several specific DNA-protein contacts. To confirm contact sites, thiol-modified nucleotides were introduced into oligo-DNA substrates at suggested points of contact and chemically crosslinked to the cysteines via formation of disulfide bridges. Cysteines incorporated in positions 124 and 146 in the ASV IN core domain were shown to interact directly with host and viral portions of the Y-mer DNA substrate, respectively. Crosslinking of an R244C ASV IN derivative identified contacts at positions 11 and 12 on both strands of viral DNA. The most efficient disulfide crosslinking was observed for complexes of the ASV IN E157C and D64C derivatives with linear viral DNA substrate carrying a thiol-modified scissile phosphate.

Conclusion

Analysis of our crosslinking results as well as published results of retroviral IN protein from other laboratories shows good agreement with the structure of PFV IN and derived ASV, HIV, and MuLV models for the core domain, but only partial agreement for the N- and C-terminal domains. These differences might be explained by structural variations and evolutionary selection for residues at alternate positions to perform analogous functions, and by methodological differences: i.e., a static picture of a particular assembly from crystallography vs. a variety of interactions that might occur during formation of functional IN complexes in solution.     

X‐ray crystal structure of the N‐terminal region of Moloney murine leukemia virus integrase and its implications for viral DNA recognition

The retroviral integrase (IN) carries out the integration of a dsDNA copy of the viral genome into the host DNA, an essential step for viral replication. All IN proteins have three general domains, the N‐terminal domain (NTD), the catalytic core domain, and the C‐terminal domain. The NTD includes an HHCC zinc finger‐like motif, which is conserved in all retroviral IN proteins. Two crystal structures of Moloney murine leukemia virus (M‐MuLV) IN N‐terminal region (NTR) constructs that both include an N‐terminal extension domain (NED, residues 1–44) and an HHCC zinc‐finger NTD (residues 45–105), in two crystal forms are reported. The structures of IN NTR constructs encoding residues 1–105 (NTR_1–105) and 8–105 (NTR_8–105) were determined at 2.7 and 2.15 Å resolution, respectively and belong to different space groups. While both crystal forms have similar protomer structures, NTR_1–105 packs as a dimer and NTR_8–105 packs as a tetramer in the asymmetric unit. The structure of the NED consists of three anti‐parallel β‐strands and an α‐helix, similar to the NED of prototype foamy virus (PFV) IN. These three β‐strands form an extended β‐sheet with another β‐strand in the HHCC Zn²⁺ binding domain, which is a unique structural feature for the M‐MuLV IN. The HHCC Zn²⁺ binding domain structure is similar to that in HIV and PFV INs, with variations within the loop regions. Differences between the PFV and MLV IN NEDs localize at regions identified to interact with the PFV LTR and are compared with established biochemical and virological data for M‐MuLV. Proteins 2017; 85:647–656. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Study on the interactions between diketo-acid inhibitors and prototype foamy virus integrase-DNA complex via molecular docking and comparative molecular dynamics simulation methods

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integrase (IN) is an important drug target for anti-acquired immune deficiency disease (AIDS) treatment and diketo-acid (DKA) inhibitors are potent and selective inhibitors of HIV-1 IN. Due to lack of three-dimensional structures including detail interactions between HIV-1 IN and its substrate viral DNA, the drug design and screening platform remains incompleteness and deficient. In addition, the action mechanism of DKA inhibitors with HIV-1 IN is not well understood. In view of the high homology between the structure of prototype foamy virus (PFV) IN and that of HIV-1 IN, we used PFV IN as a surrogate model for HIV-1 IN to investigate the inhibitory mechanism of raltegravir (RLV) and the binding modes with a series of DKA inhibitors. Firstly, molecular dynamics simulations of PFV IN, IN-RLV, IN-DNA, and IN-DNA-RLV systems were performed for 10?ns each. The interactions and inhibitory mechanism of RLV to PFV IN were explored through overall dynamics behaviors, catalytic loop conformation distribution, and hydrogen bond network analysis. The results show that the coordinated interactions of RLV with IN and viral DNA slightly reduce the flexibility of catalytic loop region of IN, and remarkably restrict the mobility of the CA end of viral DNA, which may lead to the partial loss of the inhibitory activity of IN. Then, we docked a series of DKA inhibitors into PFV IN-DNA receptor and obtained the IN-DNA-inhibitor complexes. The docking results between PFV IN-DNA and DKA inhibitors agree well with the corresponding complex of HIV-1 IN, which proves the dependability of PFV IN-DNA used for the anti-AIDS drug screening. Our study may help to make clear some theoretical questions and to design anti-AIDS drug based on the structure of IN.     

Substrate Recognition and Motion Mode Analyses of PFV Integrase in Complex with Viral DNA via Coarse-Grained Models

HIV-1 integrase (IN) is an important target in the development of drugs against the AIDS virus. Drug design based on the structure of IN was markedly hampered due to the lack of three-dimensional structure information of HIV-1 IN-viral DNA complex. The prototype foamy virus (PFV) IN has a highly functional and structural homology with HIV-1 IN. Recently, the X-ray crystal complex structure of PFV IN with its cognate viral DNA has been obtained. In this study, both Gaussian network model (GNM) and anisotropy network model (ANM) have been applied to comparatively investigate the motion modes of PFV DNA-free and DNA-bound IN. The results show that the motion mode of PFV IN has only a slight change after binding with DNA. The motion of this enzyme is in favor of association with DNA, and the binding ability is determined by its intrinsic structural topology. Molecular docking experiments were performed to gain the binding modes of a series of diketo acid (DKA) inhibitors with PFV IN obtained from ANM, from which the dependability of PFV IN-DNA used in the drug screen for strand transfer (ST) inhibitors was confirmed. It is also found that the functional groups of keto-enol, bis-diketo, tetrazole and azido play a key role in aiding the recognition of viral DNA, and thus finally increase the inhibition capability for the corresponding DKA inhibitor. Our study provides some theoretical information and helps to design anti-AIDS drug based on the structure of IN.     

A crystal structure of the catalytic core domain of an avian sarcoma and leukemia virus integrase suggests an alternate dimeric assembly

Integrase (IN) is an important therapeutic target in the search for anti-Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) inhibitors. This enzyme is composed of three domains and is hard to crystallize in its full form. First structural results on IN were obtained on the catalytic core domain (CCD) of the avian Rous and Sarcoma Virus strain Schmidt-Ruppin A (RSV-A) and on the CCD of HIV-1 IN. A ribonuclease-H like motif was revealed as well as a dimeric interface stabilized by two pairs of α-helices (α1/α5, α5/α1). These structural features have been validated in other structures of IN CCDs. We have determined the crystal structure of the Rous-associated virus type-1 (RAV-1) IN CCD to 1.8 Å resolution. RAV-1 IN shows a standard activity for integration and its CCD differs in sequence from that of RSV-A by a single accessible residue in position 182 (substitution A182T). Surprisingly, the CCD of RAV-1 IN associates itself with an unexpected dimeric interface characterized by three pairs of α-helices (α3/α5, α1/α1, α5/α3). A182 is not involved in this novel interface, which results from a rigid body rearrangement of the protein at its α1, α3, α5 surface. A new basic groove that is suitable for single-stranded nucleic acid binding is observed at the surface of the dimer. We have subsequently determined the structure of the mutant A182T of RAV-1 IN CCD and obtained a RSV-A IN CCD-like structure with two pairs of buried α-helices at the interface. Our results suggest that the CCD of avian INs can dimerize in more than one state. Such flexibility can further explain the multifunctionality of retroviral INs, which beside integration of dsDNA are implicated in different steps of the retroviral cycle in presence of viral ssRNA.     

Functional nucleotides of U5 LTR determining substrate specificity of prototype foamy virus integrase

In order to study functional nucleotides in prototype foamy virus (PFV) DNA on specific recognition by PFV integrase (IN), we designed chimeric U5 long terminal repeat (LTR) DNA substrates by exchanging comparative sequences between human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) and PFV U5 LTRs, and investigated the 3'-end processing reactivity using HIV-1 and PFV INs, respectively. HIV-1 IN recognized the nucleotides present in the fifth and sixth positions at the 3'-end of the substrates more specifically than any other nucleotides in the viral DNA. However, PFV IN recognized the eighth and ninth nucleotides as distinctively as the fifth and sixth nucleotides in the reactions. In addition, none of the nucleotides present in the twelfth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth positions were not differentially recognized by HIV-1 and PFV INs, respectively. Therefore, our results suggest that the functional nucleotides that are specifically recognized by its own IN in the PFV U5 LTR are different from those in the HIV-1 U5 LTR in aspects of the positions and nucleotide sequences. Furthermore, it is proposed that the functional nucleotides related to the specific recognition by retroviral INs are present inside ten nucleotides from the 3'-end of the U5 LTR.     

Identification of HIV-1 integrase inhibitors via three-dimensional database searching using ASV and HIV-1 integrases as targets

Integration of viral DNA into the host cell genome is a critical step in the life cycle of HIV. This essential reaction is catalyzed by integrase (IN) through two steps, 3'-processing and DNA strand transfer. Integrase is an attractive target for drug design because there is no known cellular analogue and integration is essential for successful replication of HIV. A computational three-dimensional (3-D) database search was used to identify novel HIV-1 integrase inhibitors. Starting from the previously identified Y3 (4-acetylamino-5-hydroxynaphthalene-2,7-disulfonic acid) binding site on the avian sarcoma virus integrase (ASV IN), a preliminary search of all compounds in the nonproprietary, open part of the National Cancer Institute 3-D database yielded a collection of 3100 compounds. A more rigorous scoring method was used to rescreen the 3100 compounds against both ASV IN and HIV-1 IN. Twenty-two of those compounds were selected for inhibition assays against HIV-1 IN. Thirteen of the 22 showed inhibitory activity against HIV-1 IN at concentrations less than 200 microM and three of them showed antiviral activities in HIV-1 infected CEM cells with effective concentrations (EC50) ranging from 0.8 to 200 microM. Analysis of the computer-generated binding modes of the active compounds to HIV-1 IN showed that simultaneous interaction with the Y3 site and the catalytic site is possible. In addition, interactions between the active compounds and the flexible loop involved in the binding of DNA by IN are indicated to occur. The structural details and the unique binding motif between the HIV-1 IN and its inhibitors identified in the present work may contribute to the future development of IN inhibitors.     

Integrase residues that determine nucleotide preferences at sites of HIV-1 integration: implications for the mechanism of target DNA binding

Retroviruses favor target-DNA (tDNA) distortion and particular bases at sites of integration, but the mechanism underlying HIV-1 selectivity is unknown. Crystal structures revealed a network of prototype foamy virus (PFV) integrase residues that distort tDNA: Ala188 and Arg329 interact with tDNA bases, while Arg362 contacts the phosphodiester backbone. HIV-1 integrase residues Ser119, Arg231, and Lys258 were identified here as analogs of PFV integrase residues Ala188, Arg329 and Arg362, respectively. Thirteen integrase mutations were analyzed for effects on integrase activity in vitro and during virus infection, yielding a total of 1610 unique HIV-1 integration sites. Purine (R)/pyrimidine (Y) dinucleotide sequence analysis revealed HIV-1 prefers the tDNA signature (0)RYXRY(4), which accordingly favors overlapping flexible dinucleotides at the center of the integration site. Consistent with roles for Arg231 and Lys258 in sequence specific and non-specific binding, respectively, the R231E mutation altered integration site nucleotide preferences while K258E had no effect. S119A and S119T integrase mutations significantly altered base preferences at positions −3 and 7 from the site of viral DNA joining. The S119A preference moreover mimicked wild-type PFV selectivity at these positions. We conclude that HIV-1 IN residue Ser119 and PFV IN residue Ala188 contact analogous tDNA bases to effect virus integration.     

Broad antiretroviral activity and resistance profile of the novel human immunodeficiency virus integrase inhibitor elvitegravir (JTK-303/GS-9137)

Integrase (IN), an essential enzyme of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is an attractive antiretroviral drug target. The antiviral activity and resistance profile in vitro of a novel IN inhibitor, elvitegravir (EVG) (also known as JTK-303/GS-9137), currently being developed for the treatment of HIV-1 infection are described. EVG blocked the integration of HIV-1 cDNA through the inhibition of DNA strand transfer. EVG inhibited the replication of HIV-1, including various subtypes and multiple-drug-resistant clinical isolates, and HIV-2 strains with a 50% effective concentration in the subnanomolar to nanomolar range. EVG-resistant variants were selected in two independent inductions, and a total of 8 amino acid substitutions in the catalytic core domain of IN were observed. Among the observed IN mutations, T66I and E92Q substitutions mainly contributed to EVG resistance. These two primary resistance mutations are located in the active site, and other secondary mutations identified are proximal to these primary mutations. The EVG-selected IN mutations, some of which represent novel IN inhibitor resistance mutations, conferred reduced susceptibility to other IN inhibitors, suggesting that a common mechanism is involved in resistance and potential cross-resistance. The replication capacity of EVG-resistant variants was significantly reduced relative to both wild-type virus and other IN inhibitor-resistant variants selected by L-870,810. EVG and L-870,810 both inhibited the replication of murine leukemia virus and simian immunodeficiency virus, suggesting that IN inhibitors bind to a conformationally conserved region of various retroviral IN enzymes and are an ideal drug for a range of retroviral infections.     

Retroviral integrases promote fraying of viral DNA ends

In the initial step of integration, retroviral integrase (IN) introduces precise nicks in the degenerate, short inverted repeats at the ends of linear viral DNA. The scissile phosphodiester bond is located immediately 3' of a highly conserved CA/GT dinucleotide, usually 2 bp from the ends. These nicks create new recessed 3'-OH viral DNA ends that are required for joining to host cell DNA. Previous studies have indicated that unpairing, "fraying," of the viral DNA ends by IN contributes to end recognition or catalysis. Here, we report that end fraying can be detected independently of catalysis with both avian sarcoma virus (ASV) and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) IN proteins by use of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). The results were indicative of an IN-induced intramolecular conformational change in the viral DNA ends (cis FRET). Fraying activity is tightly coupled to the DNA binding capabilities of these enzymes, as follows: an inhibitor effective against both IN proteins was shown to block ASV IN DNA binding and end fraying, with similar dose responses; ASV IN substitutions that reduced DNA binding also reduced end fraying activity; and HIV-1 IN DNA binding and end fraying were both undetectable in the absence of a metal cofactor. Consistent with our previous results, end fraying is sequence-independent, suggesting that the DNA terminus per se is a major structural determinant for recognition. We conclude that frayed ends represent a functional intermediate in which DNA termini can be sampled for suitability for endonucleolytic processing.     

Identification of amino acids in HIV-1 and avian sarcoma virus integrase subsites required for specific recognition of the long terminal repeat Ends

A tetramer model for HIV-1 integrase (IN) with DNA representing 20 bp of the U3 and U5 long terminal repeats (LTR) termini was assembled using structural and biochemical data and molecular dynamics simulations. It predicted amino acid residues on the enzyme surface that can interact with the LTR termini. A separate structural alignment of HIV-1, simian sarcoma virus (SIV), and avian sarcoma virus (ASV) INs predicted which of these residues were unique. To determine whether these residues were responsible for specific recognition of the LTR termini, the amino acids from ASV IN were substituted into the structurally equivalent positions of HIV-1 IN, and the ability of the chimeras to 3 ' process U5 HIV-1 or ASV duplex oligos was determined. This analysis demonstrated that there are multiple amino acid contacts with the LTRs and that substitution of ASV IN amino acids at many of the analogous positions in HIV-1 IN conferred partial ability to cleave ASV substrates with a concomitant loss in the ability to cleave the homologous HIV-1 substrate. HIV-1 IN residues that changed specificity include Val(72), Ser(153), Lys(160)-Ile(161), Gly(163)-Val(165), and His(171)-Leu(172). Because a chimera that combines several of these substitutions showed a specificity of cleavage of the U5 ASV substrate closer to wild type ASV IN compared with chimeras with individual amino acid substitutions, it appears that the sum of the IN interactions with the LTRs determines the specificity. Finally, residues Ser(153) and Val(72) in HIV-1 IN are among those that change in enzymes that develop resistance to naphthyridine carboxamide- and diketo acid-related inhibitors in cells. Thus, amino acid residues involved in recognition of the LTRs are among these positions that change in development of drug resistance.     

Chromosomal integration of LTR-flanked DNA in yeast expressing HIV-1 integrase: down regulation by RAD51

HIV-1 integrase (IN) is the key enzyme catalyzing the proviral DNA integration step. Although the enzyme catalyzes the integration step accurately in vitro, whether IN is sufficient for in vivo integration and how it interacts with the cellular machinery remains unclear. We set up a yeast cellular integration system where integrase was expressed as the sole HIV-1 protein and targeted the chromosomes. In this simple eukaryotic model, integrase is necessary and sufficient for the insertion of a DNA containing viral LTRs into the genome, thereby allowing the study of the isolated integration step independently of other viral mechanisms. Furthermore, the yeast system was used to identify cellular mechanisms involved in the integration step and allowed us to show the role of homologous recombination systems. We demonstrated physical interactions between HIV-1 IN and RAD51 protein and showed that HIV-1 integrase activity could be inhibited both in the cell and in vitro by RAD51 protein. Our data allowed the identification of RAD51 as a novel in vitro IN cofactor able to down regulate the activity of this retroviral enzyme, thereby acting as a potential cellular restriction factor to HIV infection.     

Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 Capsid Protein Mutagenesis Reveals Amino Acid Residues Important for Virus Particle Assembly

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) Gag drives virus particle assembly. The capsid (CA) domain is critical for Gag multimerization mediated by protein–protein interactions. The Gag protein interaction network defines critical aspects of the retroviral lifecycle at steps such as particle assembly and maturation. Previous studies have demonstrated that the immature particle morphology of HIV-2 is intriguingly distinct relative to that of HIV-1. Based upon this observation, we sought to determine the amino acid residues important for virus assembly that might help explain the differences between HIV-1 and HIV-2. To do this, we conducted site-directed mutagenesis of targeted locations in the HIV-2 CA domain of Gag and analyzed various aspects of virus particle assembly. A panel of 31 site-directed mutants of residues that reside at the HIV-2 CA inter-hexamer interface, intra-hexamer interface and CA inter-domain linker were created and analyzed for their effects on the efficiency of particle production, particle morphology, particle infectivity, Gag subcellular distribution and in vitro protein assembly. Seven conserved residues between HIV-1 and HIV-2 (L19, A41, I152, K153, K157, N194, D196) and two non-conserved residues (G38, N127) were found to significantly impact Gag multimerization and particle assembly. Taken together, these observations complement structural analyses of immature HIV-2 particle morphology and Gag lattice organization as well as provide important comparative insights into the key amino acid residues that can help explain the observed differences between HIV immature particle morphology and its association with virus replication and particle infectivity.     

A New Class of Multimerization Selective Inhibitors of HIV-1 Integrase

The quinoline-based allosteric HIV-1 integrase (IN) inhibitors (ALLINIs) are promising candidates for clinically useful antiviral agents. Studies using these compounds have highlighted the role of IN in both early and late stages of virus replication. However, dissecting the exact mechanism of action of the quinoline-based ALLINIs has been complicated by the multifunctional nature of these inhibitors because they both inhibit IN binding with its cofactor LEDGF/p75 and promote aberrant IN multimerization with similar potencies in vitro. Here we report design of small molecules that allowed us to probe the role of HIV-1 IN multimerization independently from IN-LEDGF/p75 interactions in infected cells. We altered the rigid quinoline moiety in ALLINIs and designed pyridine-based molecules with a rotatable single bond to allow these compounds to bridge between interacting IN subunits optimally and promote oligomerization. The most potent pyridine-based inhibitor, KF116, potently (EC₅₀ of 0.024 µM) blocked HIV-1 replication by inducing aberrant IN multimerization in virus particles, whereas it was not effective when added to target cells. Furthermore, KF116 inhibited the HIV-1 IN variant with the A128T substitution, which confers resistance to the majority of quinoline-based ALLINIs. A genome-wide HIV-1 integration site analysis demonstrated that addition of KF116 to target or producer cells did not affect LEDGF/p75-dependent HIV-1 integration in host chromosomes, indicating that this compound is not detectably inhibiting IN-LEDGF/p75 binding. These findings delineate the significance of correctly ordered IN structure for HIV-1 particle morphogenesis and demonstrate feasibility of exploiting IN multimerization as a therapeutic target. Furthermore, pyridine-based compounds present a novel class of multimerization selective IN inhibitors as investigational probes for HIV-1 molecular biology.     

Specific and Independent Recognition of U3 and U5 att Sites by Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Integrase In Vivo

The retroviral attachment (att) sites at viral DNA ends are cis-acting regions essential for proviral integration. To investigate the sequence features of att important for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integration in vivo, we generated a series of 25 att mutants of HIV-1 by mutagenesis of the U3, U5, or both boundaries of att. Our results indicated that the terminal 11 or 12 bp of viral DNA are sufficient for specific recognition by HIV-1 integrase (IN) and suggested that IN might recognize each att site independently in vivo.     

Identification of RFPL3 Protein as a Novel E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Modulating the Integration Activity of Human Immunodeficiency Virus,Type 1 Preintegration Complex Using a Microtiter Plate-based Assay

Integration, one of the hallmarks of retrovirus replication, is mediated by a nucleoprotein complex called the preintegration complex (PIC), in which viral DNA is associated with many protein components that are required for completion of the early phase of infection. A striking feature of the PIC is its powerful integration activity in vitro. The PICs from a freshly isolated cytoplasmic extract of infected cells are able to insert viral DNA into exogenously added target DNA in vitro. Therefore, a PIC-based in vitro assay is a reliable system for assessing protein factors influencing retroviral integration. In this study, we applied a microtiter plate-based in vitro assay to a screening study using a protein library that was produced by the wheat germ cell-free protein synthesis system. Using a library of human E3 ubiquitin ligases, we identified RFPL3 as a potential stimulator of human immunodeficiency virus, type 1 (HIV-1) PIC integration activity in vitro. This enhancement of PIC activity by RFPL3 was likely to be attributed to its N-terminal RING domain. To further understand the functional role of RFPL3 in HIV infection, we created a human cell line overexpressing RFPL3. Immunoprecipitation analysis revealed that RFPL3 was associated with the human immunodeficiency virus, type 1 PICs in infected cells. More importantly, single-round HIV-1 infection was enhanced significantly by RFPL3 expression. Our proteomic approach displays an advantage in the identification of new cellular proteins affecting the integration activity of the PIC and, therefore, contributes to the understanding of functional interaction between retroviral integration complexes and host factors.     

Structural and sequencing analysis of local target DNA recognition by MLV integrase

Target-site selection by retroviral integrase (IN) proteins profoundly affects viral pathogenesis. We describe the solution nuclear magnetic resonance structure of the Moloney murine leukemia virus IN (M-MLV) C-terminal domain (CTD) and a structural homology model of the catalytic core domain (CCD). In solution, the isolated MLV IN CTD adopts an SH3 domain fold flanked by a C-terminal unstructured tail. We generated a concordant MLV IN CCD structural model using SWISS-MODEL, MMM-tree and I-TASSER. Using the X-ray crystal structure of the prototype foamy virus IN target capture complex together with our MLV domain structures, residues within the CCD α2 helical region and the CTD β1-β2 loop were predicted to bind target DNA. The role of these residues was analyzed in vivo through point mutants and motif interchanges. Viable viruses with substitutions at the IN CCD α2 helical region and the CTD β1-β2 loop were tested for effects on integration target site selection. Next-generation sequencing and analysis of integration target sequences indicate that the CCD α2 helical region, in particular P187, interacts with the sequences distal to the scissile bonds whereas the CTD β1-β2 loop binds to residues proximal to it. These findings validate our structural model and disclose IN-DNA interactions relevant to target site selection.