a versatile palindromic amphipathic repeat coding sequence horizontally distributed among diverse bacterial and eucaryotic microbes一个多才多艺的回文两亲的重复编码序列水平分布在不同的细菌和真核微生物.pdfVIP

Röske et al. BMC Genomics 2010, 11:430 /1471-2164/11/430 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access A versatile palindromic amphipathic repeat coding sequence horizontally distributed among diverse bacterial and eucaryotic microbes 1,6* 2 3 4 5 2 Kerstin Röske , Mark F Foecking , Shibu Yooseph , John I Glass , Michael J Calcutt , Kim S Wise Abstract Background: Intragenic tandem repeats occur throughout all domains of life and impart functional and structural variability to diverse translation products. Repeat proteins confer distinctive surface phenotypes to many unicellular organisms, including those with minimal genomes such as the wall-less bacterial monoderms, Mollicutes. One such repeat pattern in this clade is distributed in a manner suggesting its exchange by horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Expanding genome sequence databases reveal the pattern in a widening range of bacteria, and recently among eucaryotic microbes. We examined the genomic flux and consequences of the motif by determining its distribution, predicted structural features and association with membrane-targeted proteins. Results: Using a refined hidden Markov model, we document a 25-residue protein sequence motif tandemly arrayed in variable-number repeats in ORFs lacking assigned functions. It appears sporadically in unicellular microbes from disparate bacterial and eucaryotic clades, representing diverse lifestyles and ecological niches that include host parasitic, marine and extreme environments. Tracts of the repeats predict a malleable configuration of recurring domains, with conserved hydrophobic residues forming an amphipathic secondary structure in which hydrophilic residues endow extensive sequence variation. Many ORFs with these domains also have