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- ****************************
- * Plant thionins signature *
- ****************************
-
- Thionins are small, basic, plant proteins generally toxic to animal cells [1].
- They seem to exert their toxic effect at the level of the cell membrane but
- their exact function is not known. They consist of a polypeptide chain of
- forty five to fifty amino acids with three to four internal disulfide bonds.
- They are found in seeds but also in the cell wall of leaves [2]. Thionins are
- processed from larger precursor proteins [3]. Crambin [4], a hydrophobic plant
- seed protein, also belongs to this family. The pattern we developed to detect
- this family of proteins includes three of the six cysteine residues involved
- in disulfide bonds.
-
- +-----------------------------------+
- |+----------------------------+ |
- || | |
- xxCCxxxxxxxxxxxCxxxxxxxxxCxxxCxxCxxxxxCxxxxxxxx
- ************** |
- | |
- +---------+
-
- 'C': conserved cysteine involved in a disulfide bond.
- '*': position of the pattern.
-
- -Consensus pattern: C-C-x(5)-R-x(2)-[FY]-x(2)-C
- [The three C's are involved in disulfide bonds]
- -Sequences known to belong to this class detected by the pattern: ALL.
- -Other sequence(s) detected in SWISS-PROT: NONE.
-
- -Note: the proteins from the gamma-thionin family are not related to the above
- proteins and are described in a separate section.
-
- -Last update: June 1994 / Text revised.
-
- [ 1] Vernon L.P., Evett G.E., Zeikus R.D., Gray W.R.
- Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 238:18-29(1985).
- [ 2] Bohlmann H., Clausen S., Behnke S., Giese H., Hiller C.,
- Reimann-Phillip U., Schrader G., Barkholt V., Apel K.
- EMBO J. 7:1559-1565(1988).
- [ 3] Bohlmann H., Apel K.
- Mol. Gen. Genet. 207:446-454(1987).
- [ 4] Teeter M.M., Mazer J.A., L'Italien J.J.
- Biochemistry 20:5437-5443(1981).
-