Nuclear receptors are crucial regulators of gene expression that directly bind to DNA. Now, Maletta et al. describe the structure of ultraspiracle protein/ecdysone receptor (USP/EcR) bound to inverted repeat DNA. Although these inverted repeats of DNA are palindromic, upon binding to the receptor the DNA–USP/EcR complex adopts an asymmetrical configuration. This conformational change has functional consequences for the orientation of transcriptional co-activators, such as those required for chromatin remodelling.
References
Maletta, M. et al. The palindromic DNA-bound USP/EcR nuclear receptor adopts an asymmetric organization with allosteric domain positioning. Nature Commun. 5, 4139 (2014)
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Lokody, I. DNA binding drives nuclear receptor architecture. Nat Rev Genet 15, 514 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3789
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3789
