Evidence that the leucine zipper is a coiled coil - PubMed (original) (raw)

. 1989 Jan 27;243(4890):538-42.

doi: 10.1126/science.2911757.

Affiliations

Evidence that the leucine zipper is a coiled coil

E K O'Shea et al. Science. 1989.

Abstract

Recently, a hypothetical structure called a leucine zipper was proposed that defines a new class of DNA binding proteins. The common feature of these proteins is a region spanning approximately 30 amino acids that contains a periodic repeat of leucines every seven residues. A peptide corresponding to the leucine zipper region of the yeast transcriptional activator GCN4 was synthesized and characterized. This peptide associates in the micromolar concentration range to form a very stable dimer of alpha helices with a parallel orientation. Although some features of the leucine zipper model are supported by our experimental data, the peptide has the characteristics of a coiled coil.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

Cited by

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources