Structural Studies on RUNX of Caenorhabditis elegans by Spectroscopic Methods

PEBP2/CBF (Polyomavirus Enhancer-core Binding Protein 2/Core Binding Factor), represents a new family of heterodimeric transcription factor. Those members play important roles in hematopoiesis and osteogenesis in mouse and human. PEBP2/CBF is a sequence-specific DNA binding protein. Each member of the PEBP2/CBF family of transcription factors is composed of two subunits, ${\alpha}$ and ${\beta}$. The evolutionarily conserved 128 amino acid region in ${\alpha}$ subunit has been called the Runt domain, which harbors two different activities, the ability to bind DNA and interact with the ${\beta}$ subunit. Recently, cDNA clones encoding the C. elegans Runt domain were isolated by screening a cDNA library. This gene was referred to run (Runt homologous gene). In this study, the basic experiments for the structural characterization of RUN protein were performed using spectroscopic methods. We have identified the structural properties of RUN using bioinformatics, CD and NMR. The limit temperature of the structural stability was up to 60$^{\circ}C$ with irreversible thermal process, and the structure of RUN seems to adopt ${\alpha}$ helices and one or more ${\beta}$ sheet or turn. The degree of NMR peak dispersion and intensity was increased by addition of glycine. Therefore, glycine could be used to alleviate the aggregation property of RUN in NMR experiment.