Virtuelle (Nano) Welten PDB Molecule of the Month 84: Transposase

Exploring the Structure

Many transposases have a signature active site that includes three acidic amino acids, termed the DDE group. The active site of the Tn5 transposase is shown here, from PDB entry 1mus. The DNA is shown at the top in spacefilling spheres, and the three acidic amino acids are shown with balls-and-sticks. The acidic amino acids hold two metal ions, shown here in green, that assist with the cleavage and reconnection reactions.

This illustration was created with RasMol. You can make similar pictures by clicking on the accession codes here and picking one of the options under Images and Visualization. A list of 'transposase' related entries in the PDB as determined by a keyword search on December 03, 2006 is available. For more information on transposases, take a look at the Protein of the Month at the European Bioinformatics Institute, or the references I used when writing this column.