title: Identification of a novel domain--DIM, which defines a new family composed mainly of bacterial membrane proteins.
abstract: We report here the identification of a novel domain - DIM (N-terminal domain in bacterial membrane proteins and other proteins) present exclusively in bacterial species including mycobacteria, revealed by PSI-BLAST iterative searches. DIM comprises about 53 amino acids in length with conserved Leu, Ile and Gly residues. Secondary structure prediction indicated that this domain contains two alpha-helices. DIM occurs at the N-terminus of proteins, and was found particularly but not exclusively in proteins with a transmembrane domain, and also in proteins with a FHA domain or RPT repeats. DIM-containing proteins have been reported to be involved in pathogenicity, signal transduction or small solute transport.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Institute of Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Handan Road 220, Shanghai 200433, PR China.
authors.forename: Xuhui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Jinhu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Xuelian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Honghai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D001692:Biological Transport; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins