Publications

BMC genomics. 2010-07-13; 11.430.

A versatile palindromic amphipathic repeat coding sequence horizontally distributed among diverse bacterial and eucaryotic microbes

Röske K, Foecking MF, Yooseph S, Glass JI, Calcutt MJ, Wise KS

PMID: 20626840

Abstract

Intragenic tandem repeats occur throughout all domains of life and impart functional and structural variability to diverse translation products. Repeat proteins confer distinctive surface phenotypes to many unicellular organisms, including those with minimal genomes such as the wall-less bacterial monoderms, Mollicutes. One such repeat pattern in this clade is distributed in a manner suggesting its exchange by horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Expanding genome sequence databases reveal the pattern in a widening range of bacteria, and recently among eucaryotic microbes. We examined the genomic flux and consequences of the motif by determining its distribution, predicted structural features and association with membrane-targeted proteins.

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