In addition it possesses a phosphatase activity that is stimulated by zinc ions and inhibited by L-tyrosine and ATP
[36] The central domain is responsible for the repressor functions of TyrR and contains determinants important for the hexamerization
[33] The C-terminal domain carries a classic HTH motif and is involved in DNA binding and dimerization
[37, 38]
TyrR binds specifically to an 18-bp palindromic target sequence, the Tyr box
[23, 27] TyrR binds to strong boxes in the absence of any cofactors. Binding to weak boxes requires ATP, tyrosine, or in the case of
tyrB tyrosine or phenylalanine, and an adjacent strong box
[20, 27] TyrR can act as a transcriptional activator and repressor. Repression requires ATP-dependent binding of aromatic amino acids to the central domain with one exception:
tyrR represses its own transcription without additional cofactors. Tyrosine is the major effector of TyrR-mediated repression. Some repression occurs with phenylalanine as a cofactor in the case of
aroF [30] aroL [1] tyrP and
aroP [39] and
aroG [40]or with tryptophan as a cofactor for
aroL [1]and
aroP [39] The residues 173, 160, and 184 of TyrR appear to be necessary to recognize the ligand L-phenylalanine (L-Phe). It was speculated that the residues 173 and 160 bind to L-Phe through hydrogen bonds and that residue 185 provides space for the benzene ring of L-Phe
[41].
TyrR-mediated activation appears to involve non ATP-dependent binding of phenylalanine, tyrosine, or tryptophan to the N-terminal domain of TyrR and the binding of TyrR to a strong box located upstream of the -35 region of the promoter. TyrR activates transcription by interacting with the C-terminal domain of the α-subunit of the RNA polymerase
[24, 42] The important residues for activation by TyrR are D250 and R310 of RpoA and R77, D97, K101, D118, E119, R121, E141 S95, E139, S100, and D103 of TyrR located in the N-terminal domain
[42] The residues E274, T14, and D103 of TyrR appear to be involved in tyrosine binding, while the residue R10 is involved in phenylalanine binding
[43]
A substitution at residue 176 of TyrR apparently affects the tertiary structure and inactivates the protein to activate or repress transcription
[41].
An electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) showed that PgrR is capable of interacting with the
tyrR promoter region; in addition, in a
pgrR mutant strain the expression of
tyrR was increased
[44]
tyrR expression was increased during growth under nitrogen starvation conditions
[44]