Premium accounts now available! Sign up and create a premium account. Read more Close

Advertisement

Image

Mechanism of heme binding by CP motifs in the BACH1 DNA-binding region

Preprint Created on 01 Sep 2026 bioRxiv

BACH1 is a heme-regulated basic-leucine-zipper containing transcriptional repressor that binds its DNA recognition elements as a heterodimer with MAFK. Heme-binding is thought to be mediated by several Cys-Proline (CP) motifs and this results in dissociation of the heterodimer from DNA. The mechanism of heme-binding and heme-mediated DNA dissociation remains unresolved. We have used UV-visible spectroscopy, 2D-NMR and DNA-binding assays to explore both heme-binding and DNA dissociation of a minimal BACH1 construct containing 2 CP motifs (C492(CP5) and C646(CP6)) flanking the DNA-binding domain. We find that heme is able to bind to both CP motifs, but also to other non-CP cysteines and histidines in the construct. Using NMR spectroscopy, we identify a structured binding pocket in which heme interacts with both C646(CP6) and Cys621. However, DNA-binding assays show that C646(CP6) is not required for heme-mediated DNA dissociation of the BACH1:MAFK heterodimer. Using UV-visible spectroscopy we show that C492(CP5) also recruits heme with a second ligand, a conserved histidine, His559, in the BACH1 DNA-recognition helix. Mutation of C492(CP5) reduces but does not abolish heme-mediated dissociation from DNA. Our findings suggest a mechanism for heme-binding to BACH1 and heme-mediated dissociation from DNA.

Huang, Y., Fairall, L., Muskett, F. W., Dominguez, C., Hudson, A., Schwabe, J. W.

Advertisement

Stats

  • Recommendations n/a n/a positive of 0 vote(s)
  • Views 19
  • Comments 0

Recommended by

  • No recommendations yet.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Advertisement