Mycobacterium ulcerans is the causative agent of the Buruli
ulcers in humans. This disease is a devastating necrotic disease of the subcutaneous tissue. Currently there are very few drugs to prevent the Buruli
ulcers. This human pathogen is carried by aquatic insects. The gene sequence of this pathogenic organism has recently been identified. In the present study an attempt has been made to analyze the structural characteristics of the SigC
protein from Mycobacterium ulcerans. Sequence analyses of SigC reveal that it belongs to the family of sigma factors, which are involved in
DNA binding at promoter sites, and play a role in transcription initiation. Homology modeling was employed to construct the three-dimensional structure of the
protein and the model was analyzed. SigC
protein has a distinct helix-turn-helix
DNA binding motif. It is compared to other members of the
DNA binding proteins. The modeled structure of SigC has been used to dock on the promoter
DNA to predict the favourable binding interactions of the
protein, which are responsible for the gene expressions in the organism. These interactions have been used to predict the plausible mechanism of the process. Since this is the first structural work regarding the interactions of SigC
protein and its promoter
DNA, this study may contribute in the realm of structure based
drug design approaches to produce drugs against this harmful organism to control its proliferation and spreading of
Buruli ulcer.