Conservation of human and mouse basonuclins as a guide to important features of the protein

The nucleotide sequence of mouse basonuclin has been determined from its cDNA by PCR and compared with the previously known sequence of human basonuclin. Overall, there is 88% identity in the encoded amino acid sequences, but some regions have been much more conserved than others. Zinc fingers 2 and 6, the region containing the nuclear localization signal and the region containing the serine stripe encode identical amino acid sequences in the two species, but differ by numerous silent nucleotide substitutions, suggesting that these regions are likely to be important for the functions of the protein common to the two species. Similarly, zinc fingers 1 and 5 diverge at only a single amino acid residue. In contrast, other regions of the sequence have diverged considerably, such as zinc fingers 3 and 4. The region adjacent to the N-terminus is very divergent and this aids in locating the translation start site. The highly conserved regions are likely to be essential for the common function of the proteins, and the more divergent regions may be either unconstrained or adapted to different requirements in the two species.