New type of polyubiquitin-like genes with intein-like autoprocessing domains.
Genome analysis of ciliates identified a new type of polyubiquitin-like genes. These contain tandem repeats of ubiquitin-like domains interspersed with autocatalytic intein-like domains. Inteins and related protein domains post-translationally process their own precursor proteins by protein-splicing, cleavage and ligation reactions. The structure of these polyubiquitin-like genes suggests their precursor products undergo maturation and conjugation in cis. This novel gene structure also illustrates the genetic modularity of ubiquitin-like and intein-like domains. Our suggested autoprocessing of ubiquitin-like polyproteins is a new potential general way for controlling protein functions.
Department of Molecular Genetics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel 76100.
Bareket
B
Dassa
Itai
I
Yanai
Shmuel
S
Pietrokovski
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D016798:Ciliophora / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D047668:Inteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D025821:Polyubiquitin / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D017385:Sequence Homology
D025821:Polyubiquitin