DNA bending and twisting properties of integration host factor determined by DNA cyclization

The binding of many proteins to DNA is profoundly affected by DNA bending, twisting, and supercoiling. When protein binding alters DNA conformation, interaction between inherent and induced DNA conformation can affect protein binding affinity and specificity. Integration host factor (IHF), a sequence-specific, DNA-binding protein of Escherichia coli, strongly bends the DNA upon binding. To assess the influence of inherent DNA bending on IHF binding, we took advantage of the high degree of natural static curvature associated with an IHF site on a 163-bp minicircle and measured the binding affinity of IHF for its recognition site contained on this DNA in both circular and linear form. IHF showed a higher affinity for the circular form of the DNA when compared to the linear form. In addition, the presence of IHF during DNA cyclization changed the topology of cyclization products and their ability to bind IHF, consistent with IHF untwisting DNA. These results show that inherent DNA conformation anisotropy is an important determinant of IHF binding affinity and suggests a mechanism for modulation of IHF activity by local DNA conformation.     

Escherichia coli prereplication complex assembly is regulated by dynamic interplay among Fis, IHF and DnaA

Initiator DnaA and DNA bending proteins, Fis and IHF, comprise prereplication complexes (pre-RC) that unwind the Escherichia coli chromosome's origin of replication, oriC. Loss of either Fis or IHF perturbs synchronous initiation from oriC copies in rapidly growing E. coli. Based on dimethylsulphate (DMS) footprinting of purified proteins, we observed a dynamic interplay among Fis, IHF and DnaA on supercoiled oriC templates. Low levels of Fis inhibited oriC unwinding by blocking both IHF and DnaA binding to low affinity sites. As the concentration of DnaA was increased, Fis repression was relieved and IHF rapidly redistributed DnaA to all unfilled binding sites on oriC. This behaviour in vitro is analogous to observed assembly of pre-RC in synchronized E. coli. We propose that as new DnaA is synthesized in E. coli, opposing activities of Fis and IHF ensure an abrupt transition from a repressed complex with unfilled weak affinity DnaA binding sites to a completely loaded unwound complex, increasing both the precision of DNA replication timing and initiation synchrony.     

Interaction of integration host factor from Escherichia coli with the integration region of the Haemophilus influenzae bacteriophage HP1.

The specific DNA-binding protein integration host factor (IHF) of Escherichia coli stimulates the site-specific recombination reaction between the attP site of bacteriophage HP1 and the attB site of its host, Haemophilus influenzae, in vitro and also appears to regulate the expression of HP1 integrase. IHF interacts specifically with DNA segments containing the att sites and the integrase regulatory region, as judged by IHF-dependent retardation of relevant DNA fragments during gel electrophoresis. The locations of the protein-binding sites were identified by DNase I protection experiments. Three sites in the HP1 attP region bound IHF, two binding sites were present in the vicinity of the attB region, and one region containing three partially overlapping sites was present in the HP1 integrase regulatory segment. The binding sites defined in these experiments all contained sequences which matched the consensus IHF binding sequences first identified in the lambda attP region. An activity which stimulated the HP1 site-specific integration reaction was found in extracts of H. influenzae, suggesting that an IHF-like protein is present in this organism.     

Escherichia coli integration host factor bends the DNA at the ends of IS1 and in an insertion hotspot with multiple IHF binding sites.

The integration host factor of Escherichia coli (IHF) is a small, histone-like protein which participates in the integration of bacteriophage lambda into the E. coli chromosome and in a number of regulatory processes. Our recent footprinting analysis has shown that IHF binds specifically to the ends of the transposable element IS1, as well as to several sites within a short segment of the plasmid pBR322. We have extended our studies of the binding of the IHF molecule to these sites in vitro using a gel retardation assay. We report here that IHF bends the DNA upon binding, as judged from the strong cyclic dependence of the protein-induced mobility shift on the position of the binding site. Using cloned, synthetic ends of IS1 as substrates, we have found that some mutations within the conserved bases of the IHF consensus binding sequence abolish binding, and that alterations of the flanking sequences can greatly reduce IHF binding. The presence of multiple IHF sites on a single DNA fragment increases binding very little, indicating that IHF does not bind cooperatively in this complex. We discuss the possibility that DNA bending is related to the role IHF plays in forming and stabilizing nucleoprotein complexes, and suggest that bending at the IHF sites may be important to its diverse effects in the cell.     

Genetic analysis of cosB, the binding site for terminase, the DNA packaging enzyme of bacteriophage lambda.

cosB, the binding site for terminase, the DNA packaging enzyme of bacteriophage lambda, consists of three binding sites (called R3, R2 and R1) for gpNu1, the small subunit of terminase; and I1, a binding site for integration host factor (IHF), the DNA bending protein of Escherichia coli. cosB is located between cosN, the site where terminase introduces staggered nicks to generate cohesive ends, and the Nu1 gene; the order of sites is: cosN-R3-I1-R2-R1-Nu1. A series of lambda mutants have been constructed that have single base-pair C-to-T transition mutations in R3, R2 and R1. A single base-pair transition mutation within any one of the gpNul binding sites renders lambda dependent upon IHF for plaque formation. lambda phage with mutations in both R2 and R3 are incapable of plaque formation even in the presence of IHF. Phages that carry DNA insertions between R1 and R2, from 7 to 20 base-pairs long, are also IHF-dependent, demonstrating the requirement for a precise spacing of gpNu1 binding sites within cosB. The IHF-dependent phenotype of a lambda mutant carrying a deletion of the R1 sequence indicates that IHF obviates the need for terminase binding to the R1 site. In contrast, a lambda mutant deleted for R2 and R1 fails to form plaques on either IHF+ or IHF- cells, indicating terminase binding of R2 is involved in suppression of R mutants by IHF. A fourth R sequence, R4, is situated on the left side of cosN; a phage with a mutant R4 sequence shows a reduced burst size on both an IHF+ and an IHF- host. The inability of the R4- mutant to be suppressed by IHF, plus the fact that R4 does not bind gpNu1, suggests R4 is not part of cosB and may play a role in DNA packaging that is distinct from that of cosB.     

The DNA binding domains of P1 ParB and the architecture of the P1 plasmid partition complex

Stable maintenance of P1 plasmids in Escherichia coli is mediated by a high affinity nucleoprotein complex called the partition complex, which consists of ParB and the E. coli integration host factor (IHF) bound specifically to the P1 parS site. IHF strongly stimulates ParB binding to parS, and the minimal partition complex contains a single dimer of ParB. To examine the architecture of the partition complex, we have investigated the DNA binding activity of various ParB fragments. Gel mobility shift and DNase I protection assays showed that the first 141 residues of ParB are dispensable for the formation of the minimal, high affinity partition complex. A fragment missing only the last 16 amino acids of ParB bound specifically to parS, but binding was weak and was no longer stimulated by IHF. The ability of IHF to stimulate ParB binding to parS correlated with the ability of ParB to dimerize via its C terminus. Using full and partial parS sites, we show that two regions of ParB, one in the center and the other near the C terminus of the protein, interact with distinct sequences within parS. Based on these data, we have proposed a model of how the ParB dimer binds parS to form the minimal partition complex.     

DNA sequence and structure: direct and indirect recognition in protein-DNA binding

MOTIVATION: Direct recognition, or direct readout, of DNA bases by a DNA-binding protein involves amino acids that interact directly with features specific to each base. Experimental evidence also shows that in many cases the protein achieves partial sequence specificity by indirect recognition, i.e., by recognizing structural properties of the DNA. (1) Could threading a DNA sequence onto a crystal structure of bound DNA help explain the indirect recognition component of sequence specificity? (2) Might the resulting pure-structure computational motif manifest itself in familiar sequence-based computational motifs? RESULTS: The starting structure motif was a crystal structure of DNA bound to the integration host factor protein (IHF) of E. coli. IHF is known to exhibit both direct and indirect recognition of its binding sites. (1) Threading DNA sequences onto the crystal structure showed statistically significant partial separation of 60 IHF binding sites from random and intragenic sequences and was positively correlated with binding affinity. (2) The crystal structure was shown to be equivalent to a linear Markov network, and so, to a joint probability distribution over sequences, computable in linear time. It was transformed algorithmically into several common pure-sequence representations, including (a) small sets of short exact strings, (b) weight matrices, (c) consensus regular patterns, (d) multiple sequence alignments, and (e) phylogenetic trees. In all cases the pure-sequence motifs retained statistically significant partial separation of the IHF binding sites from random and intragenic sequences. Most exhibited positive correlation with binding affinity. The multiple alignment showed some conserved columns, and the phylogenetic tree partially mixed low-energy sequences with IHF binding sites but separated high-energy sequences. The conclusion is that deformation energy explains part of indirect recognition, which explains part of IHF sequence-specific binding.     

Studies on the binding of integration host factor (IHF) and TraM to the origin of transfer of the IncFV plasmid pED208

The origin of transfer (oriT) of the IncFV plasmid pED208 contains a region with three binding sites for both the plasmid-encoded TraM protein and the integration host factor (IHF) of Escherichia coli, a sequence-specific DNA-binding protein. One region, containing overlapping TraM and IHF binding sites, could be interpreted as containing two binding sites for each protein. Using gel retardation assays, an affinity constant for IHF binding to the three main sites was estimated in the presence and absence of 0.1 M potassium glutamate, which increased the avidity of IHF binding to the weaker sites by two orders of magnitude. DNase I protection analyses and electron microscopy were used to determine the affinity of IHF for oriT-containing DNA in the presence and absence of TraM. The binding of IHF and TraM was found to be non-cooperative by the two techniques employed. Electron microscopy also demonstrated that IHF bent the oriT region in a manner consistent with its previously determined mode of action, while TraM had no discernible effect on the appearance of the DNA. This suggested that IHF and TraM interact with a 295 by sequence in the oriT region and organize it into a higher order structure that may have a role in the initiation of DNA transfer and control of traM expression.     

Role of Escherichia coli IHF protein in lambda site-specific recombination. A mutational analysis of binding sites

The phage lambda attachment site, attP, contains three binding sites for an Escherichia coli protein, IHF, that is needed for efficient integrative recombination. We have used synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotides to direct multiple base changes at each of these three sites. Alteration by two base-pairs of the consensus sequence for the leftmost binding site specifically interferes with IHF binding to that site and modestly depresses recombination in vitro. For each of the three binding sites, alteration of the consensus sequence by four base-pairs strongly depresses recombination in vitro, indicating that all three sites are important for attP function. The mutated attP sites are also depressed for recombination in vivo but some of the mutants are less affected than they are in vitro. The disparity between effects in vivo and in vitro for some mutants but not others suggests that the three binding sites are not functionally equivalent and that at some sites additional E. coli factors may replace or assist IHF. The non-equivalence of the three IHF sites is also indicated by the behavior of prophage attachment sites carrying mutations in the binding sites.     

Indirect recognition in sequence-specific DNA binding by Escherichia coli integration host factor: the role of DNA deformation energy

Integration host factor (IHF) is a bacterial histone-like protein whose primary biological role is to condense the bacterial nucleoid and to constrain DNA supercoils. It does so by binding in a sequence-independent manner throughout the genome. However, unlike other structurally related bacterial histone-like proteins, IHF has evolved a sequence-dependent, high affinity DNA-binding motif. The high affinity binding sites are important for the regulation of a wide range of cellular processes. A remarkable feature of IHF is that it employs an indirect readout mechanism to bind and wrap DNA at both the nonspecific and high affinity (sequence-dependent) DNA sites. In this study we assessed the contributions of pre-formed and protein-induced DNA conformations to the energetics of IHF binding. Binding energies determined experimentally were compared with energies predicted for the IHF-induced deformation of the DNA helix (DNA deformation energy) in the IHF-DNA complex. Combinatorial sets of de novo DNA sequences were designed to systematically evaluate the influence of sequence-dependent structural characteristics of the conserved IHF recognition elements of the consensus DNA sequence. We show that IHF recognizes pre-formed conformational characteristics of the consensus DNA sequence at high affinity sites, whereas at all other sites relative affinity is determined by the deformational energy required for nearest-neighbor base pairs to adopt the DNA structure of the bound DNA-IHF complex.     

Binding of the arginine repressor of Escherichia coli K12 to its operator sites.

In the arginine regulon of Escherichia coli K12 each of the eight operator sites consists of two 18-base-pair-long palindromic sequences called ARG boxes. In the operator sites for the structural genes of the regulon the two ARG boxes are separated by three base-pairs, in the regulatory gene argR they are separated by two base-pairs. The hexameric arginine repressor, the product of argR, binds to the two ARG boxes in an operator in the presence of L-arginine. From the results of various kinds of in vitro footprinting experiments with the ARG boxes of argF and argR (DNase I protection, hydroxyl radical, ethylation and methylation interference, methylation protection) it can be concluded that: (1) the repressor binds simultaneously to two adjacent ARG boxes; (2) that it binds on one face of the double helix; and (3) that it forms contacts with the major and minor grooves of each ARG box, but not with the central three base-pairs. The repressor can bind also to a single ARG box, but its affinity is about 100-fold lower than for two ARG boxes. From gel retardation experiments with 3H-labeled repressor and 32P-labeled argF operator DNA, it is concluded that the retarded DNA-protein complex contains no more than one repressor molecule per operator site and that most likely one hexamer binds to two ARG boxes. The bound repressor was shown to induce bending of argF operator DNA. The bending angle calculated from the results of gel retardation experiments is about 70 degrees and the bending center was located within the region encompassing the ARG boxes. The main features that distinguish the arginine repressor from other repressors studied in E. coli are its hexameric nature and the simultaneous binding of one hexameric molecule to two palindromic ARG boxes that are close to each other.     

Examining the contribution of a dA+dT element to the conformation of Escherichia coli integration host factor-DNA complexes.

DNA binding proteins that induce structural changes in DNA are common in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Integration host factor (IHF) is a multi-functional DNA binding and bending protein of Escherichia coli that can mediate protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions by bending DNA. Previously we have shown that the presence of a dA+dT element 5'-proximal to an IHF consensus sequence can affect the binding of IHF to a particular site. In this study the contribution of various sequence elements to the formation of IHF-DNA complexes was examined. We show that IHF bends DNA more when it binds to a site containing a dA+dT element upstream of its core consensus element than to a site lacking a dA+dT element. We demonstrate that IHF can be specifically crosslinked to DNA with binding sites either containing or lacking this dA+dT element. These results indicate the importance of flanking DNA and a dA+dT element in the binding and bending of a site by IHF.     

Building the bacterial orisome: high‐affinity DnaA recognition plays a role in setting the conformation of oriC DNA

During assembly of the E. coli pre‐replicative complex (pre‐RC), initiator DnaA oligomers are nucleated from three widely separated high‐affinity DnaA recognition sites in oriC. Oligomer assembly is then guided by low‐affinity DnaA recognition sites, but is also regulated by a switch‐like conformational change in oriC mediated by sequential binding of two DNA bending proteins, Fis and IHF, serving as inhibitor and activator respectively. Although their recognition sites are separated by up to 90 bp, Fis represses IHF binding and weak DnaA interactions until accumulating DnaA displaces Fis from oriC. It remains unclear whether high‐affinity DnaA binding plays any role in Fis repression at a distance and it is also not known whether all high‐affinity DnaA recognition sites play an equivalent role in oligomer formation. To examine these issues, we developed origin‐selective recombineering methods to mutate E. coli chromosomal oriC. We found that, although oligomers were assembled in the absence of any individual high‐affinity DnaA binding site, loss of DnaA binding at peripheral sites eliminated Fis repression, and made binding of both Fis and IHF essential. We propose a model in which interaction of DnaA molecules at high‐affinity sites regulates oriC DNA conformation.     

Role of architectural elements in combinatorial regulation of initiation of DNA replication in Escherichia coli

Bending of DNA is a prerequisite of site-specific recombination and gene expression in many regulatory systems involving the assembly of specific nucleoprotein complexes. We have investigated how the uniquely clustered Dam methylase sites, GATCs, in the origin of Escherichia coli replication ( oriC  ) and their methylation status modulate the geometry of oriC and its interaction with architectural proteins, such as integration host factor (IHF), factor for inversion stimulation (Fis) and DnaA initiator protein. We note that 3 of the 11 GATC sites at oriC are strategically positioned within the IHF protected region. Methylation of the GATCs enhances IHF binding and alters the IHF-induced bend at oriC . GATC motifs also contribute to intrinsic DNA curvature at oriC and the degree of bending is modulated by methylation. The IHF-induced bend at oriC is further modified by Fis protein and IHF affinity for its binding site may be impaired by protein(s) binding to GATCs within the IHF site. Thus, GATC sites at oriC affect the DNA conformation and GATCs, in conjunction with the protein-induced bends, are critical cis -acting elements in specifying proper juxtapositioning of initiation factors in the early steps of DNA replication.     

Identification of protein binding sites in genomic DNA by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis.

We describe a simple two-dimensional electrophoresis procedure to identify the recognition sites of DNA-binding proteins within large DNA molecules. Using this approach, we have mapped E. coli IHF (Integration Host Factor) binding sites within phage Lambda (48 kb) and phage Mu (39 kb) DNA. We are also able to visualize IHF binding sites in E. coli chromosomal DNA (4,700 kb). We present an extension of this technique using direct amplification by PCR of the isolated restriction fragments, which should permit the cloning of a collection of recognition sequences for DNA binding proteins in complex genomes.     

The P1 plasmid partition complex at parS. The influence of Escherichia coli integration host factor and of substrate topology

The P1 ParB protein is required for active partition and thus stable inheritance of the plasmid prophage. ParB and the Escherichia coli protein integration host factor (IHF) participate in the assembly of a partition complex at the centromere-like site parS. In this report the role of IHF in the formation of the partition complex has been explored. First, ParB protein was purified for these studies, which revealed that ParB forms a dimer in solution. Next, the IHF binding site was mapped to a 29-base pair region within parS, including the sequence TAACTGACTGTTT (which differs from the IHF consensus in two positions). IHF induced a strong bend in the DNA at its binding site. Versions of parS which have lost or damaged the IHF binding site bound ParB with greatly reduced affinity in vitro and in vivo. Measurements of binding constants showed that IHF increased ParB affinity for the wild-type parS site by about 10,000-fold. Finally, DNA supercoiling improved ParB binding in the presence of IHF but not in its absence. These observations led to the proposal that IHF and superhelicity assist ParB by promoting its precise positioning at parS, a spatial arrangement that results in a high affinity of ParB for parS.