A modular domain of NifU,a nitrogen fixation cluster protein,is highly conserved in evolution |
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Authors: | David M Hwang Adam Dempsey Kiat-Tsong Tan Choong-Chin Liew |
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Institution: | (1) Laboratory of Molecular Cardiology, Departments of Clinical Biochemistry and Medicine, The Centre for Cardiovascular Research, The Toronto Hospital, University of Toronto, Canada;(2) Present address: Banting Institute, University of Toronto, 100 College Street, M5G 1L5 Toronto, ON, Canada |
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Abstract: | HnifU, a gene exhibiting similarity tonifU genes of nitrogen fixation gene clusters, was identified in the course of expressed sequence tag (EST) generation from a
human fetal heart cDNA library. Northern blot of human tissues and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using human genomic DNA
verified that the hnifU gene represented a human gene rather than a microbial contaminant of the cDNA library. Conceptual translation of the hnifU cDNA yielded a protein product bearing 77% and 70% amino acid identity to NifU-like hypothetical proteins fromHaemophilus influenzae andSaccharomyces cerevisiae, respectively, and 40–44% identity to the N-terminal regions of NifU proteins from several diazatrophs (i.e., nitrogen-fixing
organisms). Pairwise determination of amino acid identities between the NifU-like proteins of nondiazatrophs showed that these
NifU-like proteins exhibited higher sequence identity to each other (63–77%) than to the diazatrophic NifU proteins (40–48%).
Further, the NifU-like proteins of non-nitrogenfixing organisms were similar only to the N-terminal region of diazatrophic
NifU proteins and therefore identified a novel modular domain in these NifU proteins. These findings support the hypothesis
that NifU is indeed a modular protein. The high degree of sequence similarity between NifU-like proteins from species as divergent
as humans andH. influenzae suggests that these proteins perform some basic cellular function and may be among the most highly conserved proteins.
Correspondence to: C.-C. Liew |
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Keywords: | Nitrogen fixation cluster nifU gene cDNA sequence |
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