pH Might Play a Role in Regulating the Function of Paired Amphipathic Helices Domains of Human Sin3B by Altering Structure and Thermodynamic Stability

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Tauheed Hasan^#, Mashook Ali^#, Daman Saluja, and Laishram Rajendrakumar Singh^*

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Center for Biomedical Research, University of Delhi, Delhi-110-007, India; fax: +91-11-2766-6248; E-mail: lairksingh@gmail.com; directoracbr@gmail.com; director@acbr.du.ac.in

^# These authors contributed equally to this work.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received August 19, 2014; Revision received September 29, 2014

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Human Sin3B (hSin3B), a transcription regulator, is a scaffold protein that binds to different transcription factors and regulates transcription. It consists of six conserved domains that include four paired amphipathic helices (PAH 1-4), histone deacetylase interaction domain (HID), and highly conserved region (HCR). Interestingly, the PAH domains of hSin3B are significantly homologous to each other, yet each one interacts with a specific set of unique transcription factors. Though various partners interacting with hSin3B PAH domains have been characterized, there is no structural information available on the individual PAH domains of hSin3B. Here we characterize the structure and stability of different PAH domains of hSin3B at both nuclear and physiological pH values by using different optical probes. We found that the native state structure and stability of different PAH domains are different at nuclear pH where hSin3B performs its biological function. We also found that PAH2 and PAH3 behave differently at both nuclear and physiological pH in terms of native state structure and thermodynamic stability, while the structural identity of PAH1 remains unaltered at both pH values. The study indicates that the structural heterogeneity of different PAH domains might be responsible for having a unique set of interacting transcription factors.

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KEY WORDS: protein structure, thermodynamic stability, circular dichroism, transcription regulator, scaffold protein

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297915040057

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