Mutational analysis of the redox-sensitive transcriptional regulator OxyR: regions important for DNA binding and multimerization.

OxyR is a LysR-type transcriptional regulator which negatively regulates its own expression and positively regulates the expression of proteins important for the defense against hydrogen peroxide in Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. Using random mutagenesis, we isolated six nonrepressing OxyR mutants that were impaired in DNA binding. Five of the mutations causing the DNA binding defect mapped near the N-terminal helix-turn-helix motif conserved among the LysR family members, confirming that this region is a DNA binding domain in OxyR. The sixth nonrepressing mutant (with E-225 changed to K [E225K]) was found to be predominantly dimeric, in contrast to the tetrameric wild-type protein, suggesting that a C-terminal region defined by the E225K mutation is involved in multimerization.