Dassa Bareket, Yanai Itai, Pietrokovski Shmuel
Department of Molecular Genetics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel 76100.
Trends Genet. 2004 Nov;20(11):538-42. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2004.08.010.
Genome analysis of ciliates identified a new type of polyubiquitin-like genes. These contain tandem repeats of ubiquitin-like domains interspersed with autocatalytic intein-like domains. Inteins and related protein domains post-translationally process their own precursor proteins by protein-splicing, cleavage and ligation reactions. The structure of these polyubiquitin-like genes suggests their precursor products undergo maturation and conjugation in cis. This novel gene structure also illustrates the genetic modularity of ubiquitin-like and intein-like domains. Our suggested autoprocessing of ubiquitin-like polyproteins is a new potential general way for controlling protein functions.
纤毛虫的基因组分析鉴定出一种新型的类泛素基因。这些基因包含类泛素结构域的串联重复序列，其间穿插着自催化内含肽样结构域。内含肽和相关蛋白质结构域通过蛋白质剪接、切割和连接反应对自身前体蛋白进行翻译后加工。这些类泛素基因的结构表明其前体产物在顺式中经历成熟和缀合。这种新型基因结构也说明了类泛素和内含肽样结构域的遗传模块化。我们提出的类泛素多蛋白的自加工是控制蛋白质功能的一种新的潜在通用方式。
