The presence of only a single conserved hydrophilic residue, an Arg, in an alignment of GMAD1 domains, would be more consistent with a passive binding role than with a catalytic function (Koonin and Galperin, 2002).
Possibly, the original thought may have been that it would play a similar binding role in the immune system.What works, works, and it is not always necessary to know why.
Previously the extracellular domain has been thought to have no similarity to other proteins or protein domains but is predicted to have a ligand binding role [26].
In this work, we propose a ribosome binding role for HflX.
Since PfRH2a/b is involved in erythrocyte invasion with an erythrocyte binding role and the rPfRH240 region binds with the same specificity as the native protein, we tested if antibodies against rPfRH240 could block erythrocyte invasion.
These data clearly suggest a similar oligosaccharide binding role for the LysM domains found in other LysM protein families.
1) The detailed study of R306C adds strength to the paper and shows evidence for the C-terminus basic cluster to have a possible DNA binding role.
Collectively, the three structures suggest that a small, stable, globular and α-helical protein fold has evolved for a peptide-binding role.
In addition, because our structure-function predictions led us to hypothesize a DNA-binding role for the mutated Arg, we wished to know if the R1092W mutation disrupted the ability of Zfp335 to bind to its targets in vivo.
The domain architectures of the Mas proteins suggest that the conserved domain plays an accessory ligand-binding role.
