A novel superfamily of nucleoside triphosphate-binding motif containing proteins which are probably involved in duplex unwinding in DNA and RNA replication and recombination |
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| Authors: | A E Gorbalenya E V Koonin A P Donchenko V M Blinov |
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| Institution: | Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitides, USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow Region. |
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| Abstract: | A statistically significant similarity was demonstrated between the amino acid sequences of 4 Escherichia coli helicases and helicase subunits, a family of non-structural proteins of eukaryotic positive-strand RNA viruses and 2 herpesvirus proteins all of which contain an NTP-binding sequence motif. Based on sequence analysis and secondary structure predictions, a generalized structural model for the ATP-binding core is proposed. It is suggested that all these proteins constitute a superfamily of helicases (or helicase subunits) involved in NTP-dependent duplex unwinding during DNA and RNA replication and recombination. |
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