Intrinsic structural disorder of the C-terminal activation domain from the bZIP transcription factor Fos

The bZIP proto-oncoprotein c-Fos activates transcription of a wide variety of genes involved in cell growth. The C-terminal activation domain of c-Fos is functionally independent of the remainder of the protein. Fos-AD corresponds to the C-terminal activation domain of human c-Fos (residues 216-380). Foe-AD suppresses (squelches) transcription in vitro, as expected for a functional activation domain lacking a DNA-binding domain. Fos-AD is unstructured and highly mobile, as demonstrated by circular dichroism spectra indicative of unfolded proteins, a lack of H-1 chemical shift dispersion, and negative H-1-N-15 heteronuclear nuclear Overhauser effects. The hydrodynamic properties of Fos-AD are also consistent with an extended structure. We conclude that the C-terminal domain of human c-Fos is biologically active yet intrinsically disordered. Our results suggest that conformational disorder is an integral aspect of the diverse contributions to transcriptional regulation by c-Fos.