Structural basis for the recognition of sulfur in phosphorothioated DNA

Abstract

DNA phosphorothioation (PT-DNA) is a DNA backbone sulfur modification that is recognized by the type-IV restriction endonuclease ScoMcrA. Here the authors provide insights into sulfur recognition by solving the crystal structure of the PT-DNA bound sulfur-binding domain (SBD) from ScoMcrA and they further show that SBD homologs are widely spread among prokaryotes.