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Eubacterial Spovg Homologs Constitute A New Family Of Site-Specific Dna-Binding Proteins, Brandon L. Jutras, Alicia M. Chenail, Christi L. Rowland, Dustin Carroll, M Clarke Miller, Tomasz Bykowski, Brian Stevenson

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

A site-specific DNA-binding protein was purified from Borrelia burgdorferi cytoplasmic extracts, and determined to be a member of the highly conserved SpoVG family. This is the first time a function has been attributed to any of these ubiquitous bacterial proteins. Further investigations into SpoVG orthologues indicated that the Staphylococcus aureus protein also binds DNA, but interacts preferentially with a distinct nucleic acid sequence. Site-directed mutagenesis and domain swapping between the S. aureus and B. burgdorferi proteins identified that a 6-residue stretch of the SpoVG α-helix contributes to DNA sequence specificity. Two additional, highly conserved amino acid residues on an adjacent …