The WD-40 repeat

Abstract

An amino acid sequence motif, called the WD-40 repeat, has been found as a repeat in a large variety of proteins that do not share any obvious functional properties. At present, the function of the repeated motif is not known for any of these proteins. Interestingly, recent experiments in yeast indicate that several proteins containing the WD-40 repeat are genetically associated with members of the TPR-family, a protein family that is characterized by the presence of another repeated motif of unknown function: the tetratricopeptide repeat. It is conceivable that proteins containing the WD-40 repeat interact physically with members of the TPR-family via their respective repeated motifs.