Abstact

BACKGROUND The Escherichia coli protein GlgS is up-regulated in response to starvation stress and its overexpression was shown to stimulate glycogen synthesis. RESULTS We solved the structure of GlgS from E. coli, a member of an enterobacterial protein family. The protein structure represents a bundle of three alpha-helices with a short hydrophobic helix sandwiched between two long amphipathic helices. CONCLUSION GlgS shows structural homology to Huntingtin, elongation factor 3, protein phosphatase 2A, TOR1 motif domains and tetratricopeptide repeats, suggesting a possible role in protein-protein interactions.