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Genome Technology Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-4470

The retroviral oncogene qin, homologue of mammalian brain factor 1 (FOXG1B), belongs to the family of winged helix transcription factors. Oncogenic transformation by Qin requires sequence-specific DNA binding. Missense mutations in the forkhead domain of Qin modulate its oncogenic transforming ability in chicken embryonic fibroblasts. We used homology model building (threading) techniques to generate atomic structures of wild-type c-Qin and c-Qin mutants, using the solution structure of the forkhead domain of the adipocyte transcription factor as a template (M. J. van Dongen et al., J. Mol. Biol., 296: 351–359, 2000). Energy calculations indicate that the Qin forkhead structure is stabilized primarily by hydrophobic interactions between residues at the helical interface. None of the missense mutations analyzed here were responsible for maintaining the most critical pairwise interactions holding the forkhead domain together. The mutated proteins form the overall structure of the forkhead domain, but the mutations do interfere with DNA binding.