title: BOF: a novel family of bacterial OB-fold proteins.
abstract: Using top-of-the-line fold recognition methods, we assigned an oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide-binding (OB)-fold structure to a family of previously uncharacterized hypothetical proteins from several bacterial genomes. This novel family of bacterial OB-fold (BOF) proteins present in a number of pathogenic strains encompasses sequences of unknown function from DUF388 (in Pfam database) and COG3111. The BOF proteins can be linked evolutionarily to other members of the OB-fold nucleic acid-binding superfamily (anticodon-binding and single strand DNA-binding domains), although they probably lack nucleic acid-binding properties as implied by the analysis of the potential binding site. The presence of conserved N-terminal predicted signal peptide indicates that BOF family members localize in the periplasm where they may function to bind proteins, small molecules, or other typical OB-fold ligands. As hypothesized for the distantly related OB-fold containing bacterial enterotoxins, the loss of nucleotide-binding function and the rapid evolution of the BOF ligand-binding site may be associated with the presence of BOF proteins in mobile genetic elements and their potential role in bacterial pathogenicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75390-9038, USA. kginal@chop.swmed.edu
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ginalski
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kinch
authors.forename: Leszek
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rychlewski
authors.forename: Nick V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Grishin
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000926:Anticodon; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001665:Binding Sites; D030562:Databases, Protein; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000378:metabolism; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000378:metabolism; D010802:Phylogeny; D017510:Protein Folding; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D000926:Anticodon; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D009841:Oligonucleotides; D009844:Oligosaccharides