Carboxyl terminal region of the MukB protein in Escherichia coli is essential for DNA binding activity.

The purified MukB protein of Escherichia coli has DNA binding activity and nucleotide binding activity. We have isolated a mutation, mukB1013, causing a substitution of valine at position 1379 to leucine. This mutant MukB protein was defective for DNA binding, while the ATP binding activity remained unaffected. A truncated MukB protein that is short of 109 amino acids from the C-terminus failed to bind DNA.