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Phage Phenomics: Physiological Approaches to Characterize Novel Viral Proteins
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Phage Phenomics: Physiological Approaches to Characterize Novel Viral Proteins

Published on: June 11, 2015

The Gam protein of bacteriophage Mu is an orthologue of eukaryotic Ku

Fabrizio d'Adda di Fagagna1, Geoffrey R Weller, Aidan J Doherty

  • 1The Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, UK.

EMBO Reports
|January 14, 2003
PubMed

Insights

Bacteriophage Mu

Area of Science:

  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics
  • Biochemistry

Background:

  • Mu bacteriophage DNA integration into host genomes serves as a model for DNA transposition.
  • Eukaryotic Ku protein is crucial for DNA repair and transposition.
  • The Gam protein of bacteriophage Mu shares sequence homology with eukaryotic Ku protein subunits.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the structural and functional similarities between bacteriophage Mu Gam protein and eukaryotic Ku protein.
  • To explore the evolutionary conservation of DNA binding and transposition functions.

Main Methods:

  • Sequence homology analysis between Gam and Ku proteins.
  • Biochemical studies to assess DNA binding characteristics of Gam and Haemophilus influenzae related proteins.
  • Assay of Gam protein's effect on Ty1 retrotransposition in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Main Results:

  • Gam protein exhibits sequence homology and potential structural similarity to the DNA-binding core of Ku.
  • Gam and related bacterial proteins show DNA binding properties similar to human Ku.
  • Gam protein inhibits Ty1 retrotransposition in yeast.

Conclusions:

  • Structural and functional parallels exist between bacteriophage Gam and eukaryotic Ku proteins.
  • The DNA binding and transposition-related functions of Gam and Ku appear to be evolutionarily conserved.

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