SANTA domain: a novel conserved protein module in Eukaryota with potential involvement in chromatin regulation.
Since packaging of DNA in the chromatin structure restricts the accessibility for regulatory factors, chromatin remodeling is required to facilitate nuclear processes such as gene transcription, replication, and genome recombination. Many conserved non-enzymatic protein domains have been identified that contribute to the activities of multiprotein remodeling complexes. Here we identified a novel conserved protein domain in Eukaryota whose putative function may be in regulating chromatin remodeling. Since this domain is associated with a known SANT domain in several vertebrate proteins, we named it the SANTA (SANT Associated) domain. Sequence analysis showed that the SANTA domain is approximately a 90 amino acid module and likely composed of four central beta-sheets and three flanking alpha-helices. Many hydrophobic residues exhibited high conservation along the domain, implying a possible function in protein-protein interactions. The SANTA domain was identified in mammals, chicken, frog, fish, sea squirt, sea urchin, worms and plants. Furthermore, a phylogenetic tree of SANTA domains showed that one plant-specific duplication event happened in the Viridiplantae lineage.
Zhang
Dapeng
D
Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
Martyniuk
Christopher J
CJ
Trudeau
Vance L
VL
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism*; D042002:Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly / Q000502:physiology*; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D016415:Sequence Alignment / Q000379:methods*; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein / Q000379:methods*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013045:Species Specificity
D002843:Chromatin; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins