Structure-Based Functional Analysis of the Replication Protein of Plasmid R6K: Key Amino Acids at the π/DNA Interface

In previous work, we characterized the bases in an iteron of plasmid R6K that are important for the binding of π protein monomers and dimers. Here we investigate the following six amino acids of π, encoded by pir, hypothesized to be important for DNA contact: Ser71, Try74, Gly131, Gly211, Arg225, and Arg254.