The Fig. 1), when labeled at multiple sites with 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdUrd), underwent photocrosslinking to NF-KB, the p65 homodimer, and the p50 homodimer. In the present studies, we utilized 3-IFN oligonucleotides containing BrdUrd at single positions within or flanking the NF-KB element to identify individual positions within the 3-IFN site that underwent efficient crosslinking and to locate amino acid residues ofp50 which are near these base pairs in the protein-DNA interface.Here we report the direct identification of two amino acids which are crosslinked to BrdUrd-substituted f3-IFN oligonucleotides and the importance of these amino acids in DNAbinding properties ofp50. Secondary structure analysis ofthe stretch of peptide which was crosslinked to DNA revealed a plausible DNA-binding motifin p50: (3-strand-turn-1-strand.MATERIALS AND METHODS Materials. BrdUrd phosphoramidite was from Peninsula Laboratories. Oligonucleotides were synthesized on an Applied Biosystems 380A DNA synthesizer. The UV transilluminator (model 3-3000, four 15-W 300-nm bulbs, 21 cm x 38 cm UV filter glass) was from Fotodyne (New Berlin, WI *To whom reprint requests should be addressed.
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