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ATPase associated with various cellular activities (AAA), bioinformatics, protein biochemistry, Sulfolobus solfataricus, Vps4 homologue.
Abstract:
Sso0909 is a protein of the thermo-acidophilic crenarchaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus, annotated as a p60
katanin-like ATPase. We present here results supporting the hypothesis that Sso0909 is an orthologue
of the eukaryotic ESCRT (endosomal sorting complex required for transport) ATPase Vps4 (vacular protein
sorting 4). The spectrum of Sso0909 homologues is limited to several orders of Crenarchaea and to three
euryarchaeal Thermoplasmata species, where they were presumably acquired by lateral gene transfer.
Almost invariably, Sso0909 homologues occur in the genomic vicinity of homologues of eukaryotic ESCRT-III
components, which are the targets of disassembly by Vps4, as well as with a creanarchaeal-specific
coiled-coil protein. S. solfataricus sso0909 is constitutively expressed under normal growth conditions and
appears to be essential, as judged by the failure to obtain stable deletion mutants. We expressed Sso0909
in Escherichia coli and S. solfataricus, but have not obtained preparations with ATPase activity so far.
