Conformational preferences in the Ser133-phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated forms of the kinase inducible transactivation domain of CREB.

Phosphorylation of Ser133 within the kinase inducible transactivation domain (KID) of the transcription factor CREB potentiates interaction with the KIX domain of coactivator CBP. Heteronuclear NMR spectroscopic analyses reveal that the KID domain is largely unstructured except for residues that comprise the alphaA helix in the pKID-KIX complex, which populate helical conformations to a significant extent (>50%). The helical content in the alphaB region is very small in the non-phosphorylated form (approximately 10%) although a small increase is detected upon Ser133 phosphorylation. The intrinsic bias towards helical conformations probably facilitates folding of the KID domain upon binding to KIX while the principal role of the phosphate group appears to be largely in mediating the intermolecular interactions in the pKID-KIX complex.