Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 8, 2026

Creating and Applying a Reference to Facilitate the Discussion and Classification of Proteins in a Diverse Group
Published on: August 16, 2017
[Conserved motifs in the primary and secondary ITS1 structures in bryophytes]
I A Milyutina1,2, M S Ignatov3
1Belozersky Institute of Physicochemical Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow, 119899 Russia.
Abstract:
A study of the ITS1 nucleotide sequences of 1000 moss species of 62 families, 11 liverwort species from five orders, and one hornwort Anthoceros agrestis identified five highly conserved motifs (CM1-CM5), which are presumably involved in pre-rRNA processing. Although the ITS1 sequences substantially differ in length and the extent of divergence, the conserved motifs are found in all of them. ITS1 secondary structures were constructed for 76 mosses, and main regularities at conserved motif positioning were observed. The positions of processing sites in the ITS1 secondary structure of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae were found to be similar to the positions of the conserved motifs in the ITS1 secondary structures of mosses and liverworts. In addition, a potential hairpin formation in the putative secondary structure of a pre-rRNA fragment was considered for the region between ITS1 CM4-CM5 and a highly conserved region between hairpins 49 and 50 (H49 and H50) of the 18S rRNA.
Related Concept Videos
Conserved Binding Sites
Binding sites are often located in large pockets, and if their location on a protein’s surface is unknown, it can be predicted using various approaches. The energetic method computationally...
Conserved Binding Sites
Conservation of Protein Domains Over Different Proteins
A limited set of protein domains often duplicate and recombine during evolution. These domains can be organized in different combinations to...
Protein Folding
Protein Folding
Protein Structure Is Critical to Its Biological Function
Proteins perform a wide range of biological functions such as catalyzing chemical reactions, providing...
RNA Structure
Different Types of RNA Have the Same Basic Structure
There are three main types of ribonucleic acid (RNA) involved in protein synthesis: messenger RNA (mRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), and ribosomal RNA (rRNA). All three...

