The retro-GCN4 leucine zipper sequence forms a stable three-dimensional structure.

Mittl, P R; Deillon, C; Sargent, D; Liu, N; Klauser, S; Thomas, R M; Gutte, B; Grütter, M G · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2000

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The question of whether a protein whose natural sequence is inverted adopts a stable fold is still under debate. We have determined the 2. 1-A crystal structure of the retro-GCN4 leucine zipper. In contrast to the two-stranded helical coiled-coil GCN4 leucine zipper, the retro-leucine zipper formed a very stable, parallel four-helix bundle, which now lends itself to further structural and functional studies.

Medical subject headings