The P5 protein from bacteriophage phi-6 is a distant homolog of lytic transglycosylases

Protein Sci. 2005 May;14(5):1370-4. doi: 10.1110/ps.041250005. Epub 2005 Mar 31.

Abstract

Peptidases are classical objects of enzymology and structural studies. However, a few protein families with experimentally characterized proteolytic activity, but unknown catalytic mechanism and three-dimensional structures, still exist. Using comparative sequence analysis, we deduce spatial structure for one of such families, namely, U40, which contains just one P5 protein from bacteriophage phi-6. We show that this singleton sequence possesses conserved sequence motifs characteristic of lysozymes and is a distant homolog of lytic transglycosylases that cleave bacterial peptidoglycan. The structure of the P5 protein is therefore predicted to adopt the lysozyme-like fold shared by T4, lambda, C-type, G-type lysozymes, and lytic transglycosylases. Since previous biochemical experiments with P5 of phi-6 have indicated that the purified enzyme possesses endopeptidase activity and not glycosidase activity, our results point to the possibility of a newly evolved molecular function and call for further experimental characterization of this unusual P5 protein.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Bacteriophage phi 6 / chemistry*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
  • Viral Proteins / chemistry*

Substances

  • Viral Proteins