The α-subunit of protein prenyltransferases is a member of the tetratricopeptide repeat family

Hong Zhang, Nick V. Grishin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Lipidation catalyzed by protein prenyltransferases is essential for the biological function of a number of eukaryotic proteins, many of which are involved in signal transduction and vesicular traffic regulation. Sequence similarity searches reveal that the α-subunit of protein prenyltransferases (PTα) is a member of the tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) superfamily. This finding makes the three-dimensional structure of the rat protein farnesyltransferase the first structural model of a TPR protein interacting with its protein partner. Structural comparison of the two TPR domains in protein farnesyltransferase and protein phosphatase 5 indicates that variation in TPR consensus residues may affect protein binding specificity through altering the overall shape of the TPR superhelix. A general approach to evolutionary analysis of proteins with repetitive sequence motifs has been developed and applied to the protein prenyltransferases and other TPR proteins. The results suggest that all members in PTα family originated from a common multirepeat ancestor, while the common ancestor of PTα and other members of TPR superfamily is likely to be a single repeat protein.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1658-1667
Number of pages10
JournalProtein Science
Volume8
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 1999

Keywords

  • Helix packing
  • Protein evolution
  • Protein prenyltransferases
  • Protein-protein interactions
  • Tetratricopeptide repeat

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology

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