title: Identification of four families of yCCR4- and Mg2+-dependent endonuclease-related proteins in higher eukaryotes, and characterization of orthologs of yCCR4 with a conserved leucine-rich repeat essential for hCAF1/hPOP2 binding.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The yeast yCCR4 factor belongs to the CCR4-NOT transcriptional regulatory complex, in which it interacts, through its leucine-rich repeat (LRR) motif with yPOP2. Recently, yCCR4 was shown to be a component of the major cytoplasmic mRNA deadenylase complex, and to contain a fold related to the Mg2+-dependent endonuclease core.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Here, we report the identification of nineteen yCCR4-related proteins in eukaryotes (including yeast, plants and animals), which all contain the yCCR4 endonuclease-like fold, with highly conserved CCR4-specific residues. Phylogenetic and genomic analyses show that they form four distinct families, one of which contains the yCCR4 orthologs. The orthologs in animals possess a leucine-rich repeat domain. We show, using two-hybrid and far-Western assays, that the human member binds to the human yPOP2 homologs, i.e. hCAF1 and hPOP2, in a LRR-dependent manner.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have identified the mammalian orthologs of yCCR4 and have shown that the human member binds to the human yPOP2 homologs, thus strongly suggesting conservation of the CCR4-NOT complex from yeast to human. All members of the four identified yCCR4-related protein families show stricking conservation of the endonuclease-like catalytic motifs of the yCCR4 C-terminal domain and therefore constitute a new family of potential deadenylases in mammals.
authors.affiliation: Unité des Rétrovirus Endogènes et Eléments Rétroïdes des Eucaryotes Supérieurs, UMR 1573 CNRS, Institut Gustave Roussy, 39 rue Camille Desmoulins, 94805 Villejuif Cedex, France. dupresso@igr.fr
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dupressoir
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Morel
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Barbot
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Loireau
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Corbo
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Heidmann