title: Identification and characterization of rad51 of Pneumocystis.
abstract: Rad51, a eukaryotic homolog of RecA, is an important protein involved in DNA recombination and repair. We have characterized rad51 of Pneumocystis carinii and Pneumocystis murina. rad51 is a single copy gene that encodes a 1.2 kb mRNA, which contains an open reading frame encoding 343 amino acids. Rad51 from Pneumocystis showed high homology to those from yeast. ATP binding motifs GEFRTGKS and LLIVD, similar to those of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe, are conserved in Pneumocystis Rad51. The recombinant protein when expressed in E. coli showed DNA-dependent ATPase activity. Since Rad51 is a key enzyme in DNA repair and recombination, it potentially plays an important role in the recombination process leading to antigenic variation and thereby resistance to host immune responses in Pneumocystis.
authors.affiliation: Critical Care Medicine Department, NIH Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-1662, USA.
authors.forename: Geetha
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kutty
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Kovacs
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011010:Pneumocystis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D045363:Pneumocystis carinii / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D051135:Rad51 Recombinase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins; D051135:Rad51 Recombinase