DDB_G0286539 - dictyBase/community-annotations GitHub Wiki

DDB_G0286539 is similar (first blast hit, both ways) to metazoan p53 binding protein. The homology is mostly within the BRCT domain, but several additional small islands of homology are recognized by Blast2Sequences, scattered along most of the length of the molecules. p53 binding protein, aka 53BP1, is thought to mediate between sensors of double strand breaks and effectors of repair processes, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, see Fitzgerald et al, Biochemical Society Transactions 37 (2009).

The Dicty gene is overexpressed fourfold in a Dicty strain in which the retinoblastoma-like gene rblA has been disrupted. Most genes whose products have roles in cell cycle progression are overexpressed in this strain; this includes a number of genes for replication-coupled DNA repair (Doquang et al, in preparation), and more specifically five other genes with putative functions in double-strand break repair (mre11, xrcc4, lig4, PNKP, DDB_G0293866, DDB_G0286539). The overexpression factors all lie between 3 and 7. The developmental time course of DDB_G0286539 expression (courtesy of dictyExpress-mRNA seq) is similar to that of many DNA repair genes.

This suggests that DDB_G0286539 has functions similar to those of 53BP1 in metazoans.

No p53 gene has been identified in Dicty. It appears, however, that at least some aspects of p53-downstream pathways are conserved in amebae. There are a number of rblA-regulated genes without recognizable homology, but with "repair"-type developmental time courses, so the existence of a diverged p53-like molecule is not excluded.

Harry MacWilliams, December 2009

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