Expansion and re-classification of the extracytoplasmic function (ECF) σ factor family.

ABSTRACT: Extracytoplasmic function σ factors (ECFs) represent one of the major bacterial signal transduction mechanisms in terms of abundance, diversity and importance, particularly in mediating stress responses. Here, we performed a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of this protein family by scrutinizing all proteins in the NCBI database. As a result, we identified an average of ∼10 ECFs per bacterial genome and 157 phylogenetic ECF groups that feature a conserved genetic neighborhood and a similar regulation mechanism. Our analysis expands previous classification efforts ∼50-fold, enriches many original ECF groups with previously unclassified proteins and identifies 22 entirely new ECF groups. The ECF groups are hierarchically related to each other and are further composed of subgroups with clo

SUBMITTER: Casas-Pastor D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7826278 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature