HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Abad, P. C. Articles by Lelièvre, S. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Abad, P. C. Articles by Lelièvre, S. A. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

ACCELERATED COMMUNICATION

The C terminus of the nuclear protein NuMA: Phylogenetic distribution and structure

¹ Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2026, USA
² Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

(RECEIVED June 1, 2004; FINAL REVISION June 1, 2004; ACCEPTED July 11, 2004)

The C terminus of the nuclear protein NuMA, NuMA-CT, has a well-known function in mitosis via its proximal segment, but it seems also involved in the control of differentiation. To further investigate the structure and function of NuMA, we exploited established computational techniques and tools to collate and characterize proteins with regions similar to the distal portion of NuMA-CT (NuMA-CTDP). The phylogenetic distribution of NuMA-CTDP was examined by PSI-BLAST- and TBLASTN-based analysis of genome and protein sequence databases. Proteins and open reading frames with a NuMA-CTDP-like region were found in a diverse set of vertebrate species including mammals, birds, amphibia, and early teleost fish. The potential structure of NuMA-CTDP was investigated by searching a database of protein sequences of known three-dimensional structure with a hidden Markov model (HMM) estimated using representative (human, frog, chicken, and pufferfish) sequences. The two highest scoring sequences that aligned to the HMM were the extracellular domains of 3-integrin and Her2, suggesting that NuMA-CTDP may have a primarily fold structure. These data indicate that NuMA-CTDP may represent an important functional sequence conserved in vertebrates, where it may act as a receptor to coordinate cellular events.

Keywords: nuclear mitotic apparatus protein; 3-integrin; chordate; mammary epithelial cells; differentiation

Abbreviations: ESTs, expressed sequence tags • HMM, hidden Markov model • NCBI, National Center for Biotechnology Information • NuMA, nuclear mitotic apparatus protein • NuMA-CT, NuMA C terminus • NuMA-CTDP, distal portion of NuMA CT • NuMA-NT, NuMA N terminus • RAR, retinoic acid receptor • RCSB, Research Collaboratory for Structural Biology • SAM, Sequence Alignment and Modeling.

Article and publication are at http://www.proteinscience.org/cgi/doi/10.1110/ps.04906804.

Reprint requests to: Sophie A. Lelièvre, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Purdue University, 625 Harrison Street, LYNN, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2026, USA; e-mail: lelievre{at}purdue.edu; fax: (765) 494-0781.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. Chandramouly, P. C. Abad, D. W. Knowles, and S. A. Lelievre The control of tissue architecture over nuclear organization is crucial for epithelial cell fate J. Cell Sci., May 1, 2007; 120(9): 1596 - 1606. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. C. Abad, J. Lewis, I. S. Mian, D. W. Knowles, J. Sturgis, S. Badve, J. Xie, and S. A. Lelievre NuMA Influences Higher Order Chromatin Organization in Human Mammary Epithelium Mol. Biol. Cell, February 1, 2007; 18(2): 348 - 361. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]