Zinc uptake regulator

Zinc uptake regulator
The E. coli Zur protein in a dimer-of-dimers orientation (blue/light blue and red/orange), interacting with DNA (yellow) and zinc ions (gray spheres). Rendered from PDB: 4MTD​.
Identifiers
Organism	Escherichia coli
Symbol	Zur
PDB	4MTD
UniProt	P0AC51

The zinc uptake regulator (Zur) gene is a bacterial gene that codes for a transcription factor protein involved in zinc homeostasis. The protein is a member of the ferric uptake regulator family and binds zinc with high affinity. It typically functions as a repressor of zinc uptake proteins via binding to characteristic promoter DNA sequences in a dimer-of-dimers arrangement that creates strong cooperativity.^[1] Under conditions of zinc deficiency, the protein undergoes a conformational change that prevents DNA binding, thereby lifting the repression and causing zinc uptake genes such as ZinT and the ZnuABC zinc transporter to be expressed.^[1][2][3]

References

1. Gilston, BA; Wang, S; Marcus, MD; Canalizo-Hernández, MA; Swindell, EP; Xue, Y; Mondragón, A; O'Halloran, TV (November 2014). "Structural and mechanistic basis of zinc regulation across the E. coli Zur regulon.". PLoS biology 12 (11): e1001987. PMID 25369000.
2. Blindauer, CA (18 March 2015). "Advances in the molecular understanding of biological zinc transport.". Chemical communications (Cambridge, England) 51 (22): 4544–63. PMID 25627157.
3. Graham, AI; Hunt, S; Stokes, SL; Bramall, N; Bunch, J; Cox, AG; McLeod, CW; Poole, RK (3 July 2009). "Severe zinc depletion of Escherichia coli: roles for high affinity zinc binding by ZinT, zinc transport and zinc-independent proteins.". The Journal of biological chemistry 284 (27): 18377–89. PMID 19377097.