28TH | pdb_000028th

Two TraI relaxases in their asymmetric homodimer state in complex with fork DNA (TraI-AHD)

• PDB DOI: https://doi.org/10.2210/pdb28TH/pdb
• EM Map EMD-56436: EMDB EMDataResource

• Classification: TRANSFERASE
• Organism(s): Escherichia coli K-12, Escherichia coli
• Expression System: Escherichia coli BL21(DE3)
• Mutation(s): No 


• Deposited: 2026-02-18 Released: 2026-11-11 
• Deposition Author(s): Gorenkin, D., Liang, R., Patkowski, J.B., Bodet-Lefevre, S., Costa, T.R.D., Ilangovan, A.
• Funding Organization(s): Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)

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Experimental Data Snapshot

• Method: ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
• Resolution: 3.67 Å
• Aggregation State: PARTICLE 
• Reconstruction Method: SINGLE PARTICLE 

Literature

Relaxase asymmetry drives initiation of bacterial conjugation

Gorenkin, D., Liang, R., Patkowski, J.B., Bodet-Lefevre, S., Costa, T.R.D., Ilangovan, A.

(2026) Nat Commun 

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78888-w

Biological Assembly 1  

Global Symmetry: Asymmetric - C1 
Global Stoichiometry: Hetero 2-mer - A1B1 

Biological assembly 1 assigned by authors and generated by (software)

Biological Assembly Evidence: electron microscopy

Macromolecule Content 

• Total Structure Weight: 222.08 kDa 
• Atom Count: 13,332 
• Modeled Residue Count: 1,661 
• Deposited Residue Count: 1,853 
• Unique protein chains: 2
• Unique nucleic acid chains: 2

Macromolecules

Entity ID: 1
Molecule	Chains	Sequence Length	Organism	Details	Image
Multifunctional conjugation protein TraI	A	1,446	Escherichia coli K-12	Mutation(s): 0  Gene Names: traI EC: 5.6.2 (PDB Primary Data), 5.6.2.3 (PDB Primary Data)
UniProt
Find proteins for Q6TDU5 (Escherichia coli) Explore Q6TDU5  Go to UniProtKB:  Q6TDU5

Entity ID: 4
Molecule	Chains	Sequence Length	Organism	Details	Image
Multifunctional conjugation protein TraI	D	310	Escherichia coli	Mutation(s): 0  Gene Names: traI EC: 5.6.2 (PDB Primary Data), 5.6.2.3 (PDB Primary Data)
UniProt
Find proteins for Q6TDU5 (Escherichia coli) Explore Q6TDU5  Go to UniProtKB:  Q6TDU5

Entity ID: 2
Molecule	Chains	Length	Organism	Image
DNA (38-MER)	B	65	Escherichia coli K-12

Entity ID: 3
Molecule	Chains	Length	Organism	Image
DNA (5'-D(P*AP*GP*GP*AP*TP*GP*GP*TP*GP*TP*TP*TP*T)-3')	C	32	Escherichia coli

Small Molecules

Ligands 1 Unique
ID	Chains	Name / Formula / InChI Key	2D Diagram
MG	E [auth D]	MAGNESIUM ION Mg JLVVSXFLKOJNIY-UHFFFAOYSA-N

Experimental Data & Validation

Experimental Data

• Method: ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
• Resolution: 3.67 Å
• Aggregation State: PARTICLE 
• Reconstruction Method: SINGLE PARTICLE 

EM Software:

Task	Software Package	Version
MODEL REFINEMENT	PHENIX	1.21.2_5419
RECONSTRUCTION	cryoSPARC

Structure Validation

Entry History 

& Funding Information

Deposition Data

• Released Date: 2026-11-11 
Deposition Author(s): Gorenkin, D., Liang, R., Patkowski, J.B., Bodet-Lefevre, S., Costa, T.R.D., Ilangovan, A.

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Funding Organization	Location	Grant Number
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)	United Kingdom	BB/X016900/1

Revision History  

• Version 1.0: 2026-11-11
  Type: Initial release