title: The Drosophila melanogaster genome contains a member of the Rh/T2/S-glycoprotein family of ribonuclease-encoding genes.
abstract: Members of the Rh/T2/S-glycoprotein family of ribonuclease(RNase)-encoding genes have been found predominantly in fungi, plants and bacteria, where they have been implicated in functions as diverse as the phosphate-starvation response and self-incompatibility. We report the isolation and sequence of DmRNase-66B, the first member of this family to be found in an insect genome. This gene was identified by the analysis of a cDNA clone derived from cytological region 66B1-2 of the genome of Drosophila melanogaster. In a search of sequence databases for homologs of this gene, two animal viral proteins, gp53 of the bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) and gp44/48 of the hog cholera virus (HCV), were also found to exhibit the characteristic features of this class of RNases. In all cases, the proteins contain two conserved pentameric amino-acid regions that have been shown to lie in the active site of these RNases. A series of Cys residues are also conserved in all members of this gene family. The discovery of members of this family of genes in an insect genome indicates that these RNases are widely conserved and play important roles in the animal, as well as the plant and prokaryotic kingdoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hime
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Prior
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saint
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D004722:Endoribonucleases / Q000235:genetics; D017344:Genes, Insect / Q000235:genetics*; D016678:Genome; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family / Q000235:genetics*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D012260:Ribonucleases / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014780:Viruses / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D006023:Glycoproteins; D010940:Plant Proteins; C076697:self-incompatibility glycoprotein, Nicotiana; D004722:Endoribonucleases; C094545:RNaseX25 protein, Drosophila; D012260:Ribonucleases; C075842:ribonuclease Rh; C022543:ribonuclease T(2)