Structure HighlightsStructure Highlights
The structure of S. aureus protein has a size of 8.9 kDa. Hfq forms a symmetric hexameric ring with a diameter of ~ 65 Å and width of 23 Å. This hexamer has a central hole, doughnut shape like. The protein have a N-terminal alfa helix (α1) in each subunit tracked by five B strands (β1-β5) Hfq contains a sm fold who share conserved amino acids like the aspartic acid 40 and the glycine 34, determining hydrophobic residues present in the Sm1 motif which maintain the highly distorted Sm1 fold. Tyr56 and Tyr63, highly conserved in the Sm2 motif, are fundamental for the interaction between subunits. The glutamine 8 and tyrosine 42 are highly conserved in Hfq proteins due to their role in uracil binding.
Since Sm proteins often yield inactive hexameric forms when over-expressed in bacteria (Zaric et al. 2005) and the heptameric form has never been observed in Hfq, it is likely that the hexamer is the thermodynamically more stable form of this fold.