Zinc uptake regulator explained

Zinc uptake regulation protein
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.^{[2] [3]}

Notes and References

1. Gilston BA, Wang S, Marcus MD, Canalizo-Hernández MA, Swindell EP, Xue Y, Mondragón A, O'Halloran TV . Structural and mechanistic basis of zinc regulation across the E. coli Zur regulon . PLOS Biology . 12 . 11 . e1001987 . November 2014 . 25369000 . 4219657 . 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001987 . free .
2. Blindauer CA . Advances in the molecular understanding of biological zinc transport . Chemical Communications . 51 . 22 . 4544–63 . March 2015 . 25627157 . 10.1039/c4cc10174j . free .
3. Graham AI, Hunt S, Stokes SL, Bramall N, Bunch J, Cox AG, McLeod CW, Poole RK . 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 . July 2009 . 19377097 . 2709383 . 10.1074/jbc.m109.001503 . free .