Mitochondrial transcription factor A, abbreviated as TFAM or mtTFA, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the TFAM gene. This gene encodes a mitochondrial transcription factor that is a key activator of mitochondrial transcription as well as a participant in mitochondrial genome replication. TFAM binds mitochondrial promoter DNA to aid transcription of the mitochondrial genome. Studies in mice have demonstrated that this gene product is required to regulate the mitochondrial genome copy number and is essential for embryonic development. TFAM is a double box High-mobility group DNA-binding and bending protein. This bending action is important for mitochondrial transcription initiation in mammals, but not in yeasts with the homolog Abf2. TFAM may also participate in the packaging of the mitochondrial genome, as its binding activity is non-sequence-specific. Here you can see a recent crystal structure of TFAM in complex with a non sequence-specific sequence containing a GN10G consensus. The structure reveals a unique arrangement in which TFAM bridges two DNA substrates while maintaining the GN10G interactions. We propose that the GN10G consensus is key to facilitate the interaction of TFAM with DNA (PDB code: 7LBX)
#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #mitochondria ... #transcrptionfactor ... #mtDNA ... #xray
TFAM transcription factor complex rendered with @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint
#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #mitochondria ... #transcrptionfactor ... #mtDNA ... #xray
TFAM transcription factor complex rendered with @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint
