Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39753777›Full record

ArticleNature structural & molecular biology2025

Interfacial water confers transcription factors with dinucleotide specificity.

Ekaterina Morgunova, Gabor Nagy, Yimeng Yin, Fangjie Zhu, Sonali Priyadarshini Nayak, Tianyi Xiao, Ilya Sokolov, Alexander Popov, Charles Laughton, Helmut Grubmuller and 1 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature structural & molecular biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. aBIOTECH · 2025
    Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Ekaterina MorgunovaDepartment of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7754-9021
Gabor NagyTheoretical and Computational Biophysics Department, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8607-9682
Yimeng YinDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5454-608X
Fangjie ZhuHaixia Institute of Science and Technology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0143-5765
Sonali Priyadarshini NayakTheoretical and Computational Biophysics Department, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany.
Tianyi XiaoDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Ilya SokolovDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Alexander PopovESRF Grenoble, Grenoble, France.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3058-8912
Charles LaughtonSchool of Pharmacy and Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4090-3960
Helmut GrubmullerTheoretical and Computational Biophysics Department, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3270-3144
Jussi TaipaleDepartment of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. jussi.taipale@ki.se.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4204-0951

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Transcription factors (TFs) recognize specific bases within their DNA-binding motifs, with each base contributing nearly independently to total binding energy. However, the energetic contributions of particular dinucleotides can deviate strongly from the additive approximation, indicating that some TFs can specifically recognize DNA dinucleotides. Here we solved high-resolution (<1 Å) structures of MYF5 and BARHL2 bound to DNAs containing sets of dinucleotides that have different affinities to the proteins. The dinucleotides were recognized either enthalpically, by an extensive water network that connects the adjacent bases to the TF, or entropically, by a hydrophobic patch that maintained interfacial water mobility. This mechanism confers differential temperature sensitivity to the optimal sites, with implications for thermal regulation of gene expression. Our results uncover the enigma of how TFs can recognize more complex local features than mononucleotides and demonstrate that water-mediated recognition is important for predicting affinities of macromolecules from their sequence.

Indexed as

DNA-Binding ProteinsTranscription FactorsWaterBinding SitesCrystallography, X-RayDNAHydrophobic and Hydrophilic InteractionsModels, MolecularProtein BindingThermodynamicsDNADNA-Binding ProteinsTranscription FactorsWater

Identifiers

PMID39753777
PMCPMC11996681

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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 Socratic graph.