Conservation of helical bundle structure between the exocyst subunits.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The exocyst is a large hetero-octomeric protein complex required for regulating the targeting and fusion of secretory vesicles to the plasma membrane in eukaryotic cells. Although the sequence identity between the eight different exocyst subunits is less than 10%, structures of domains of four of the subunits revealed a similar helical bundle topology. Characterization of several of these subunits has been hindered by lack of soluble protein for biochemical and structural studies.

Methodology/principal findings

Using advanced hidden Markov models combined with secondary structure predictions, we detect significant sequence similarity between each of the exocyst subunits, indicating that they all contain helical bundle structures. We corroborate these remote homolo

SUBMITTER: Croteau NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2635961 | biostudies-literature | 2009

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature