Zinc-finger BED domains drive the formation of the active Hermes transpososome by asymmetric DNA binding

Hermes is a member of the eukaryotic hAT DNA transposon superfamily. Its transposase forms a ring-shaped tetramer of dimers to provide sufficient number of DNA binding BED domains to locate its transposon left-end in genomic DNA and facilitate the subsequent interaction with the right-end. The Hermes DNA transposon is a member of the eukaryotic hAT superfamily, and its transposase forms a ring-shaped tetramer of dimers. Our investigation, combining biochemical, crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy, and in-cell assays, shows that the full-length Hermes octamer extensively interacts with its transposon left-end through multiple BED domains of three Hermes protomers contributed by three dimers explaining the role of the unusual higher-order assembly. By contrast, the right-end is bound to no BED domains at all. Thus, this work supports a model in which Hermes multimerizes to gather enough BED domains to find its left-end among the abundant genomic DNA, facilitating the subsequent interaction with the right-end.