Comparison of the catalytic centre sequences revealed differences, raising the possibility of designing new drugs which specifically inhibit bacterial and fungal enzymes without affecting PP20/hTPK and offering the possibility for safe antimicrobial therapy during pregnancy.
We are thankful for the efforts of the members of the Genome Quebec Innovation Centre Sequencing and Bioinformatics groups.
Comparisons of KS10 sequences with the B. cenocepacia J2315 genome sequence were carried out using the BLAST server at the Sanger Centre sequencing project web site ).
The reactive-centre sequence was adopted in preference to the numbering system used previously [ 22] because the former contains functional information lacking in the latter.
A new convenient and functionally informative nomenclature for plant serpins in which the reactive-centre sequence is incorporated into the serpin name was developed and applied to the rice serpins.
Listed are 25 20-mer unpurified peptides in which each core sequence were centred around.
The diversity of reactive-centre sequences among the putatively inhibitory serpins of rice point to a range of target proteases with different proteolytic specificities.
Nipponbare (a monocot) showed a diversity of reactive-centre sequences (which largely determine inhibitory specificity) and a low degree of identity with those of serpins in Arabidopsis (a eudicot).
The naming system adopted in this paper could be extended to other plant species to enable easy matching or differentiation between serpins with identical or similar reactive-centre sequences.
The differences in the reactive-centre sequences of these otherwise closely related serpins might reflect a need to broaden the inhibitory specificity of the rice serpin complement for defence against digestive proteinases from insects or pathogens.
