Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Human mitochondrial mTERF wraps around DNA through a left-handed superhelical tandem repeat

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 17, pages 891–893 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

The regulation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) processes is slowly being characterized at a structural level. We present here crystal structures of human mitochondrial regulator mTERF, a transcription termination factor also implicated in replication pausing, in complex with double-stranded DNA oligonucleotides containing the tRNALeuUUR gene sequence. mTERF comprises nine left-handed helical tandem repeats that form a left-handed superhelix, the Zurdo domain.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The mTERF Zurdo domain.
Figure 2: Protein-DNA interactions between mTERF and a 15-bp DNA.
Figure 3: Excision of TERF-I results in the reorganization of the protein structure.

Similar content being viewed by others

Accession codes

Primary accessions

Protein Data Bank

References

  1. Martin, M., Cho, J., Cesare, A.J., Griffith, J.D. & Attardi, G. Cell 123, 1227–1240 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hyvarinen, A.K. et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 35, 6458–6474 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Fernandez-Silva, P., Martinez-Azorin, F., Micol, V. & Attardi, G. EMBO J. 16, 1066–1079 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Linder, T. et al. Curr. Genet. 48, 265–269 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Roberti, M., Bruni, F., Polosa, P.L., Gadaleta, M.N. & Cantatore, P. Nucleic Acids Res. 34, 2109–2116 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Roberti, M. et al. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1787, 303–311 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Conti, E., Uy, M., Leighton, L., Blobel, G. & Kuriyan, J. Cell 94, 193–204 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Huber, A.H. & Weis, W.I. Cell 105, 391–402 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang, X., McLachlan, J., Zamore, P.D. & Hall, T.M. Cell 110, 501–512 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Sibanda, B.L., Chirgadze, D.Y. & Blundell, T.L. Nature 463, 118–121 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Bailey, S. et al. J. Biol. Chem. 278, 15304–15312 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Kazmirski, S.L., Podobnik, M., Weitze, T.F., O'Donnell, M. & Kuriyan, J. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 16750–16755 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Kruse, B., Narasimhan, N. & Attardi, G. Cell 58, 391–397 (1989).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Shang, J. & Clayton, D.A. J. Biol. Chem. 269, 29112–29120 (1994).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Wu, H.M. & Crothers, D.M. Nature 308, 509–513 (1984).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Smid, A., Finsterer, M. & Grummt, I. J. Mol. Biol. 227, 635–647 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge J. Colom for help during protein purification, G.M. Sheldrick for in-house data collection and S. Brockhauser for help with minikappa. This study was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (grants BFU2006-09593, BFU2009-07134, BIO2009-10576, BFU2008-02372, FIS-PI070045), Generalitat de Catalunya (SGR2009-1366 and SGR2009-1309) and the European Community (LSHG-2006-031220). A.R.-C. and P.F.-M. hold fellowships from CSIC and the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. P.B. holds a Ramon y Cajal contract. We acknowledge the Academy of Finland, Tampere University Hospital Medical Research Fund and Sigrid Juselius Foundation. We are grateful to European Molecular Biology Laboratory—Grenoble Outstation, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and the Automated Crystallography Platform (Barcelona Science Park) for their support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona, Parc Cientific de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Nereida Jiménez-Menéndez, Pablo Fernández-Millán, Anna Rubio-Cosials, Carme Arnan, Miquel Coll, Isabel Usón & Maria Solà

  2. Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Parc Científic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Nereida Jiménez-Menéndez, Carme Arnan, Pau Bernadó & Miquel Coll

  3. Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular y Celular, Universidad de Zaragoza - CIBER de Enfermedades Raras, Zaragoza, Spain

    Julio Montoya

  4. Institute of Medical Technology and Tampere University Hospital, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Howard T Jacobs

  5. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, Spain

    Isabel Usón

Authors
  1. Nereida Jiménez-Menéndez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pablo Fernández-Millán
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Anna Rubio-Cosials
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Carme Arnan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Julio Montoya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Howard T Jacobs
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Pau Bernadó
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Miquel Coll
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Isabel Usón
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Maria Solà
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

N.J.-M. and C.A. contributed to cloning; N.J.-M. to protein production and crystallization; N.J.-M. and P.B. to SAXS studies; N.J.-M., I.U. and M.S. to X-ray structure determination; and N.J.-M., P.F.-M. and A.R.-C. to figure preparation. M.S. and M.C. provided materials and infrastructure. N.J.-M., H.T.J. and the rest of authors participated in manuscript writing and discussion. M.S. designed and supervised the project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Solà.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–3, Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 1161 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jiménez-Menéndez, N., Fernández-Millán, P., Rubio-Cosials, A. et al. Human mitochondrial mTERF wraps around DNA through a left-handed superhelical tandem repeat. Nat Struct Mol Biol 17, 891–893 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.1859

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.1859

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing