ArticleNucleic acids research2018
A single molecule analysis of H-NS uncouples DNA binding affinity from DNA specificity.
Article in Nucleic acids research, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- GapR stiffens AT-rich and overtwisted DNA leading to differential effects on transcription based on gene context.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Characterizing the Impact of Nucleoid-Associated Proteins on HU-DNA Interactions by Live-Cell Single-Molecule Tracking.Chemphyschem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry · 2026Article
- Characterizing the Impact of Nucleoid-Associated Proteins on HU-DNA Interactions by Live-Cell Single-Molecule Tracking.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Bacterial chromatin proteins, transcription, and DNA topology: Inseparable partners in the control of gene expression.Molecular microbiology · 2024Review
- Exploring TRF2-Dependent DNA Distortion Through Single-DNA Manipulation Studies.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Deciphering Sequence-Specific DNA Binding by H-NS Using Molecular Simulation.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2024Article
- A pH-sensitive switch activates virulence ineLife · 2023Article
- DNA-binding proteins studied by mechanical manipulation and AFM imaging of single DNA molecules.Biophysics reports · 2022Article
- Bacterial H-NS contacts DNA at the same irregularly spaced sites in both bridged and hemi-sequestered linear filaments.iScience · 2022Article
- Modulating binding affinity, specificity, and configurations by multivalent interactions.Biophysical journal · 2022Article
- Dps Is a Universally Conserved Dual-Action DNA-Binding and Ferritin Protein.Journal of bacteriology · 2022Review
- Dynamics and inhibition of MLL1 CXXC domain on DNA revealed by single-molecule quantification.Biophysical journal · 2021Article
- Dynamics of TRF1 organizing a single human telomere.Nucleic acids research · 2021Article
- Impact of Self-Association on the Architectural Properties of Bacterial Nucleoid Proteins.Biophysical journal · 2021Article
- Redefining the H-NS protein family: a diversity of specialized core and accessory forms exhibit hierarchical transcriptional network integration.Nucleic acids research · 2020Article
- Article
- Regulation of R1 Plasmid Transfer by H-NS, ArcA, TraJ, and DNA Sequence Elements.Frontiers in microbiology · 2020Article
- Architecture of the Escherichia coli nucleoid.PLoS genetics · 2019Article
- The architects of bacterial DNA bridges: a structurally and functionally conserved family of proteins.Open biology · 2019Article
- Force-Dependent Binding Constants.Biochemistry · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Heat-stable nucleoid structuring protein (H-NS) plays a crucial role in gene silencing within prokaryotic cells and is important in pathogenesis. It was reported that H-NS silences nearly 5% of the genome, yet the molecular mechanism of silencing is not well understood. Here, we employed a highly-sensitive single-molecule counting approach, and measured the dissociation constant (KD) of H-NS binding to single DNA binding sites. Charged residues in the linker domain of H-NS provided the most significant contribution to DNA binding affinity. Although H-NS was reported to prefer A/T-rich DNA (a feature of pathogenicity islands) over G/C-rich DNA, the dissociation constants obtained from such sites were nearly identical. Using a hairpin unzipping assay, we were able to uncouple non-specific DNA binding steps from nucleation site binding and subsequent polymerization. We propose a model in which H-NS initially engages with non-specific DNA via reasonably high affinity (∼60 nM KD) electrostatic interactions with basic residues in the linker domain. This initial contact enables H-NS to search along the DNA for specific nucleation sites that drive subsequent polymerization and gene silencing.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.