Structure of the STAT proteins.

<p><b>(A)</b> STATs structure is composed of a N-terminal domain (N-term), a Coiled-Coil domain (CCD), a DNA Binding domain (DBD), a Linker domain (LD), a SRC homology 2 domain (SH2), a Phosphotyrosyl Tail (p-Tail), and a C-terminus named the Trans-Activation Domain (TAD); <b>(B)</b> The crystallographic or NMR data (Protein Data Bank, PDB) characterized a structure of STAT1 (1BF5 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0145142#pone.0145142.ref012" target="_blank">12</a>], 1YVL [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0145142#pone.0145142.ref013" target="_blank">13</a>] and 2KA6 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0145142#pone.0145142.ref014" target="_blank">14</a>]), STAT2 (2KA4 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0145142#pone.0145142.ref014" target="_blank">14</a>]), STAT3 (1BG1 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0145142#pone.0145142.ref015" target="_blank">15</a>], 3CWG [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0145142#pone.0145142.ref016" target="_blank">16</a>] and 4E68 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0145142#pone.0145142.ref010" target="_blank">10</a>]), STAT4 (1BGF [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0145142#pone.0145142.ref017" target="_blank">17</a>]), STAT5a (1Y1U [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0145142#pone.0145142.ref018" target="_blank">18</a>]) and STAT6 (1OJ5 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0145142#pone.0145142.ref019" target="_blank">19</a>]). Different STATs domains are distinguished by color: N-terminal is in orange, CCD is in blue, DBD is in red, LD is in green, SH2 is in yellow, p-Tail is in grey and TAD is in magenta.