Crystal structure of yeast Esa1 suggests a unified mechanism for catalysis and substrate binding by histone acetyltransferases.
Yan, Y., Barlev, N.A., Haley, R.H., Berger, S.L., Marmorstein, R.(2000) Mol Cell 6: 1195-1205
- PubMed: 11106757 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/s1097-2765(00)00116-7
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
1FY7 - PubMed Abstract: 
Esa1 is the catalytic subunit of the NuA4 histone acetylase (HAT) complex that acetylates histone H4, and it is a member of the MYST family of HAT proteins that includes the MOZ oncoprotein and the HIV-1 Tat interacting protein Tip60. Here we report the X-ray crystal structure of the HAT domain of Esa1 bound to coenzyme A and investigate the protein's catalytic mechanism. Our data reveal that Esa1 contains a central core domain harboring a putative catalytic base, and flanking domains that are implicated in histone binding. Comparisons with the Gcn5/PCAF and Hat1 proteins suggest a unified mechanism of catalysis and histone binding by HAT proteins, whereby a structurally conserved core domain mediates catalysis, and sequence variability within a structurally related N- and C-terminal scaffold determines substrate specificity.
Organizational Affiliation: 
The Wistar Institute University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.