Linker histone H1 belongs to the family of proteins that are involved in organizing eukaryotic DNA into a compact structure. Many types of linker histone H1 are found in mammals; and the subtypes are cell specific and their amount in different types of cells varies according to the cell functions. Post-translational modifications occur on different amino acids in each subtype of linker histone ...

Protein-tyrosine kinase-6 (PTK6, also known as Brk) is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase that contains SH3, SH2, and catalytic (Kinase) domains. We have identified an intramolecular interaction between the linker (Linker) region connecting the SH2 and Kinase domains and the Kinase domain. Residue Trp-184 within the Linker region is essential for the Linker-Kinase interaction but not for the Linker...

Non-cellulosomal processive endoglucanase 9I (Cel9I) from Clostridium thermocellum is a modular protein, consisting of a family-9 glycoside hydrolase (GH9) catalytic module and two family-3 carbohydrate-binding modules (CBM3c and CBM3b), separated by linker regions. GH9 does not show cellulase activity when expressed without CBM3c and CBM3b and the presence of the CBM3c was previously shown to ...

approved: Jordanka Zlatanova By studying the linker histone/DNA complex in vitro, our goal was to gain further insight into the interaction of these histones in chromatin structure, which, in turn, helps us in better understanding critical biological processes such as replication, transcription, and recombination. In direct competition experiments, we have confirmed previous results of the pref...

The compaction level of arrays of nucleosomes may be understood in terms of the balance between the self-repulsion of DNA (principally linker DNA) and countering factors including the ionic strength and composition of the medium, the highly basic N termini of the core histones, and linker histones. However, the structural principles that come into play during the transition from a loose chain o...

Profilaggrin consists of multiple filaggrin domains joined by linker segments which are removed during proteolytic conversion to filaggrin. Analysis of tryptic peptides of filaggrin defined a 26-residue linker segment when aligned on the amino acid sequence of one repeat unit of mouse profilaggrin deduced from a cDNA sequence (Rothnagel, J. A., Mehrel, T., Idler, W. W., Roop, D. R., and Steiner...

Kinesin’s neck linker is known to play a critical role in its nucleotide-dependent motility. However, it remains unclear how the neck linker binds and unbinds on the kinesin motor head as it walks on the microtubule and generates a walking stroke. To elucidate the nature of the interaction between the neck linker and motor head, we performed molecular dynamics simulations in which the neck link...

Nucleosome placement, or DNA linker length patterns, are believed to yield specific spatial features in chromatin fibers, but details are unknown. Here we examine by mesoscale modeling how kilobase (kb) range contacts and fiber looping depend on linker lengths ranging from 18 to 45 bp, with values modeled after living systems, including nucleosome free regions (NFRs) and gene encoding segments....

The chromatin fiber undergoes significant structural changes during the cell's life cycle to modulate DNA accessibility. Detailed mechanisms of such structural transformations of chromatin fibers as affected by various internal and external conditions such as the ionic conditions of the medium, the linker DNA length, and the presence of linker histones, constitute an open challenge. Here we uti...