Abstract
Contrary to the opinion recently offered by Dimou et al., our previously published biochemical, subcellular and genetic data supported our contention that AN11127 corresponds to the A. nidulans gene encoding Sec12, which is the guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) specific for SAR1. We add here additional bioinformatics evidence that fully disprove the otherwise negative evidence reported by Dimou et al., highlighting the dangers associated with the lax interpretation of genomic data. On the positive side, we establish guidelines for the identification of this key secretory gene in other species of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, including species of medical and applied interest.
Highlights
The high affinity binding of GDP to the active site requires the action of a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF), originally baptized
September 2019, we reported that gene model AN11127 from Aspergillus nidulans encodes the only Sec12 protein present in this fungus and used its amino acid sequence to infer the identity of the corresponding homologues in other related filamentous ascomycetes [8]
(2) An11127/Sec12 contains a PANTHER PTHR23284 ‘prolactin regulatory elementbinding domain’, which is the designation for a domain characterizing Sec12-like GEF proteins [8]
Summary
Searches as amino acid sequence conservation is restricted to a relatively small stretch of residues containing the active site. September 2019, we reported that gene model AN11127 from Aspergillus nidulans encodes the only Sec12 protein present in this fungus and used its amino acid sequence to infer the identity of the corresponding homologues in other related filamentous ascomycetes [8]. (1) AN11127/Sec12 contains the so-denoted K-loop motif GGGGxxxxGφxN (where φ indicates hydrophobic amino acids) included in an 18-residue conserved sequence
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