Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.1.1.113 (restriction-modification system)
 350 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Gene order in prokaryotes is conserved to a much lesser extent than protein sequences. Only several operons, primarily those that code for physically interacting proteins, are conserved in all or most of the bacterial and archaeal genomes. Nevertheless, even the limited conservation of operon organization that is observed can provide valuable evolutionary and functional clues through multiple genome comparisons. A program for constructing gapped local alignments of conserved gene strings in two genomes was developed. The statistical significance of the local alignments was assessed using Monte Carlo simulations. Sets of local alignments were generated for all pairs of completely sequenced bacterial and archaeal genomes, and for each genome a template-anchored multiple alignment was constructed. In most pairwise genome comparisons, <10% of the genes in each genome belonged to conserved gene strings. When closely related pairs of species (i.e., two mycoplasmas) are excluded, the total coverage of genomes by conserved gene strings ranged from <5% for the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp to 24% for the minimal genome of Mycoplasma genitalium, and 23% in Thermotoga maritima. The coverage of the archaeal genomes was only slightly lower than that of bacterial genomes. The majority of the conserved gene strings are known operons, with the ribosomal superoperon being the top-scoring string in most genome comparisons. However, in some of the bacterial-archaeal pairs, the superoperon is rearranged to the extent that other operons, primarily those subject to horizontal transfer, show the greatest level of conservation, such as the archaeal-type H+-ATPase operon or ABC-type transport cassettes. The level of gene order conservation among prokaryotic genomes was compared to the cooccurrence of genomes in clusters of orthologous genes (COGs) and to the conservation of protein sequences themselves. Only limited correlation was observed between these evolutionary variables. Gene order conservation shows a much lower variance than the cooccurrence of genomes in COGs, which indicates that intragenome homogenization via recombination occurs in evolution much faster than intergenome homogenization via horizontal gene transfer and lineage-specific gene loss. The potential of using template-anchored multiple-genome alignments for predicting functions of uncharacterized genes was quantitatively assessed. Functions were predicted or significantly clarified for approximately 90 COGs (approximately 4% of the total of 2414 analyzed COGs). The most significant predictions were obtained for the poorly characterized archaeal genomes; these include a previously uncharacterized restriction-modification system, a nuclease-helicase combination implicated in DNA repair, and the probable archaeal counterpart of the eukaryotic exosome. Multiple genome alignments are a resource for studies on operon rearrangement and disruption, which is central to our understanding of the evolution of prokaryotic genomes. Because of the rapid evolution of the gene order, the potential of genome alignment for prediction of gene functions is limited, but nevertheless, such predictions information significantly complements the results obtained through protein sequence and structure analysis.
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PMID:Genome alignment, evolution of prokaryotic genome organization, and prediction of gene function using genomic context. 1123 Jan 60

Recently, it has been shown that a predicted P-loop ATPase (the HerA or MlaA protein), which is highly conserved in archaea and also present in many bacteria but absent in eukaryotes, has a bidirectional helicase activity and forms hexameric rings similar to those described for the TrwB ATPase. In this study, the FtsK-HerA superfamily of P-loop ATPases, in which the HerA clade comprises one of the major branches, is analyzed in detail. We show that, in addition to the FtsK and HerA clades, this superfamily includes several families of characterized or predicted ATPases which are predominantly involved in extrusion of DNA and peptides through membrane pores. The DNA-packaging ATPases of various bacteriophages and eukaryotic double-stranded DNA viruses also belong to the FtsK-HerA superfamily. The FtsK protein is the essential bacterial ATPase that is responsible for the correct segregation of daughter chromosomes during cell division. The structural and evolutionary relationship between HerA and FtsK and the nearly perfect complementarity of their phyletic distributions suggest that HerA similarly mediates DNA pumping into the progeny cells during archaeal cell division. It appears likely that the HerA and FtsK families diverged concomitantly with the archaeal-bacterial division and that the last universal common ancestor of modern life forms had an ancestral DNA-pumping ATPase that gave rise to these families. Furthermore, the relationship of these cellular proteins with the packaging ATPases of diverse DNA viruses suggests that a common DNA pumping mechanism might be operational in both cellular and viral genome segregation. The herA gene forms a highly conserved operon with the gene for the NurA nuclease and, in many archaea, also with the orthologs of eukaryotic double-strand break repair proteins MRE11 and Rad50. HerA is predicted to function in a complex with these proteins in DNA pumping and repair of double-stranded breaks introduced during this process and, possibly, also during DNA replication. Extensive comparative analysis of the 'genomic context' combined with in-depth sequence analysis led to the prediction of numerous previously unnoticed nucleases of the NurA superfamily, including a specific version that is likely to be the endonuclease component of a novel restriction-modification system. This analysis also led to the identification of previously uncharacterized nucleases, such as a novel predicted nuclease of the Sir2-type Rossmann fold, and phosphatases of the HAD superfamily that are likely to function as partners of the FtsK-HerA superfamily ATPases.
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PMID:Comparative genomics of the FtsK-HerA superfamily of pumping ATPases: implications for the origins of chromosome segregation, cell division and viral capsid packaging. 1546 93

SXT/R391 family has the most abundant types and members in integrating conjugative elements (ICE). SXT/ R391 elements are comprised of conservative core genes and genes in variable regions. The functions of conservative core genes of SXT/R391 include integration and excision, self-transfer through conjugation, and regulation of its expression. The genes in the variable regions often encode for drug and heavy metal resistances, forming of biofilm, adjustment of bacterial motility, and toxin-antitoxin systems that prevent SXT/R391 deletion from hosts. Some genes in variable region of SXT/R391 also encode for restriction-modification system, helicase, and endonuclease. The activity of SXT/R391 is positively regulated by activator SetCD, and negatively regulated by repressor SetR. SXT/R391 cannot be easily deleted from the primary donors in the process of transfer. SXT/R391 prevent the acquirement of closely related and homogeneous elements but cannot prevent the acquirement of heterogenetic ICE, which leads to the generation of hybrid ICE under the action of recombination system encoded by SXT/R391 themselves. SXT/R391 have high transferable frequency and wide host range, and until now more than 40 different SXT/R391 elements have been discovered in various bacteria, especially in Vibrio species, which mainly distribute in coastal areas in Asia and Africa. It suggests that marine environments are likely the main reservoir for SXT/R391 and these elements probably spread from marine environmental strains to clinical strains, under increasing selective pressure. Due to the hazard caused by the prevalence and the transfer of SXT/R391, medical microbiologist and health departments should be fully alert to the spread of the elements.
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PMID:[Bacterial SXT/R391 family from integrating conjugative elements--a review]. 2519 45