Protein Domain : Transcription factor, K-box IPR002487

Type	Domain
Description	MADS genes in plants encode key developmental regulators of vegetative and reproductive development. The majority of the plant MADS proteins share a stereotypical MIKC structure. It comprises (from N- to C-terminal) an N-terminal domain, which is, however, present only in a minority of proteins; a MADS domain (see , ), which is the major determinant of DNA-binding but which also performs dimerisation and accessory factor binding functions; a weakly conserved intervening (I) domain, which constitutes a key molecular determinant for the selective formation of DNA-binding dimers; a keratin-like (K-box) domain, which promotes protein dimerisation; and a C-terminal (C) domain, which is involved in transcriptional activation or in the formation of ternary or quaternary protein complexes. The 80-amino acid K-box domain was originally identified as a region with low but significant similarity to a region of keratin, which is part of the coiled-coil sequence constituting the central rod-shaped domain of keratin [ , , ].The K-box protein-protein interaction domain which mediates heterodimerization of MIKC-type MADS proteins contains several heptad repeats in which the first and the fourth positions are occupied by hydrophobic amino acids suggesting that the K-box domain forms three amphipathic α-helices referred to as K1, K2, and K3 [ ].
Short Name	TF_Kbox