Homing Endonuclease - Structural Families

Structural Families

A B

C
Dimer of the I-CreI homing endonuclease. Alpha helices are shown in green and beta sheets in blue. A: The two small pink spheres in the center of the structure are two metal cations necessary for catalysis. The structure shows the saddle that beta strands create to accommodate the DNA. These strands contain the LAGLIDADG motifs that interact with the DNA minor groove. B & C: DNA atoms are shown as spheres, colored according to chemical element.
LAGLIDADG endonuclease
the structure and dna recognition of a bifunctional homing endonuclease and group i intron splicing factor
Identifiers
Symbol LAGLIDADG_1
Pfam PF00961
Pfam clan CL0324
InterPro IPR001982
SCOP 1af5
SUPERFAMILY 1af5
Available protein structures:
Pfam structures
PDB RCSB PDB; PDBe
PDBsum structure summary
LAGLIDADG DNA endonuclease family
the homing endonuclease i-scei bound to its dna recognition region
Identifiers
Symbol LAGLIDADG_2
Pfam PF03161
Pfam clan CL0324
InterPro IPR004860
Available protein structures:
Pfam structures
PDB RCSB PDB; PDBe
PDBsum structure summary

Currently there are six known structural families. Their conserved structural motifs are:

  • LAGLIDADG: Every polypeptide has 1 or 2 LAGLIDADG motifs. The sequence LAGLIDADG is a conserved sequence of amino acids where each letter is a code that identifies a specific residue. This sequence is directly involved in the DNA cutting process. Those enzymes that have only one motif work as homodimers, creating a saddle that interacts with the major groove of each DNA half-site. The LAGLIDADG motifs contribute amino acid residues to both the protein-protein interface between protein domains or subunits, and to the enzyme's active sites. Enzymes that possess two motifs in a single protein chain act as monomers, creating the saddle in a similar way. The first structures to be determined of homing endonucleases (of PI-SceI and I-CreI, both reported in 1997) were both from the LAGLIDADG structural family., The following year, the first structure of a homing endonuclease (I-CreI) bound to its DNA target site was also reported.
  • GIY-YIG: These have only one GIY-YIG motif, in the N-terminal region, that interacts with the DNA in the cutting site. The prototypic enzyme of this family is I-TevI which acts as a monomer. Separate structural studies have been reported of the DNA-binding and catalytic domains of I-TevI, the former bound to its DNA target and the latter in the absence of DNA.,
  • His-Cys box: These enzymes possess a region of 30 amino acids that includes 5 conserved residues: two histidines and three cysteins. They co-ordinate the metal cation needed for catalysis. I-PpoI is the best characterized enzyme of this family and acts as a homodimer. Its structure was reported in 1998.
  • H-N-H: These have a consensus sequence of approximately 30 amino acids. It includes two pairs of conserved histidines and one asparagine that create a zinc finger domain. I-HmuI is the best characterized enzyme of this family, and acts as a monomer. Its structure was reported in 2004.
  • PD-(D/E)xK: These enzymes contain a canonical nuclease catalytic domain typically found in type II restriction endonucleases. The best characterized enzyme in this family, I-Ssp6803I, acts as a tetramer. Its structure was reported in 2007.
  • Vsr-like: These enzymes were discovered in the Global Ocean Sampling Metagenomic Database and first described in 2009. The term 'Vsr-like' refers to the presence of a C-terminal nuclease domain that displays recognizable homology to bacterial Very Short Patch Repair (Vsr) endonucleases.

Read more about this topic:  Homing Endonuclease

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