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"Overhead view", or helical wheel diagram, of a leucine zipper, where d represent amino acid leucine , arranged with other amino acids on two parallel alpha helices.

A leucine zipper, aka leucine scissors^[1], is a super-secondary structural motif found in proteins that creates adhesion forces in parallel alpha helices.^[2] It is a common dimerization domain found in some proteins involved in regulating gene expression. Leucine zippers are found in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic regulatory proteins but are mainly a feature of Eukaryotes. An amphipathic alpha helix is formed with a hydrophobic region at one side having basic aminoacids. This hydrophobic region provides an area for attachment of 2 polypeptides.

[edit] Structure

Leucine Zipper (blue) bound to DNA. The leucine residues that represent the 'teeth' of the zipper are colored red

The main feature of the leucine zipper domain is the predominance of the common amino acid leucine at the d position of the heptad repeat. Leucine zippers were first identified by sequence alignment of certain transcription factors which identified a common pattern of leucines every seven amino acids. These leucines were later shown to form the hydrophobic core of a coiled coil.

Each half of a leucine zipper consists of a short alpha-helix with a leucine residue at every seventh position. The standard 3.6 residues per turn alpha-helix structure changes slightly to become a 3.5 residues per turn alpha-helix. Known also as the heptat repeat, one leucine comes in direct contact with another leucine on the other strand every second turn.

The bZip family of transcription factors consist of a basic region which interacts with the major groove of a DNA molecule through hydrogen bonding, and a hydrophobic leucine zipper region which is responsible for dimerization.

[edit] Biology

Leucine zipper regulatory proteins include c-fos and c-jun (the AP1 transcription factor), important regulators of normal development. If they are overproduced or mutated in a vital area, they may generate cancer. These proteins interact with the DNA as dimers (homo- or hetero-) and are also called basic zipper proteins (bZips).

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[edit] External links

• MeSH Leucine+zippers