Zinc uptake regulator

Zinc uptake regulation protein
The E. coli Zur protein in a dimer-of-dimers orientation (blue/light blue and red/orange), interacting with DNA (yellow) and zinc ions (gray spheres). Rendered from PDB: 4MTD​.
Identifiers
Organism	Escherichia coli
Symbol	Zur
PDB	4MTD
UniProt	P0AC51
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The zinc uptake regulator (Zur) gene is a bacterial gene that codes for a transcription factor protein involved in zinc homeostasis. The protein is a member of the ferric uptake regulator family and binds zinc with high affinity. It typically functions as a repressor of zinc uptake proteins via binding to characteristic promoter DNA sequences in a dimer-of-dimers arrangement that creates strong cooperativity. Under conditions of zinc deficiency, the protein undergoes a conformational change that prevents DNA binding, thereby lifting the repression and causing zinc uptake genes such as ZinT and the ZnuABC zinc transporter to be expressed.