BEN: a novel domain in chromatin factors and DNA viral proteins

Abstract

We report a previously uncharacterized alpha-helical module, the BEN domain, in diverse animal proteins such as BANP/SMAR1, NAC1 and the Drosophila mod(mdg4) isoform C, in the chordopoxvirus virosomal protein E5R and in several proteins of polydnaviruses. Contextual analysis suggests that the BEN domain mediates protein-DNA and protein-protein interactions during chromatin organization and transcription. The presence of BEN domains in a poxviral early virosomal protein and in polydnaviral proteins also suggests a possible role for them in organization of viral DNA during replication or transcription.

Fig 1

Multiple sequence alignment of the BEN domain. Proteins are represented by their gene names, species abbreviations and gis. The sequence range and families, represented by numbers, are given to the right of the alignment. F 1: Drosophila Insensitive, 2: C1orf165, 3: mod(mdg4), 4: NAC1, 5: CCDC4, 6: polydnavirus family, 7: C6orf65, 8: BANP/SMAR1, 9: Cxorf20, 10: NEMVEDRAFT_v1g243017, 11: E5R/KIAA1553, 12: Xpat. The coloring reflects the consensus at 80% conservation calculated from a more extensive alignment (Supplementary Material). Consensus abbreviations are h: hydrophobic, l: aliphatic, s: small, p: polar, b: big. Species abbreviations are as follows: Aaeg: Aedes aegypti; Agam: Anopheles gambiae; Amel: Apis mellifera; Btau: Bos taurus; CcBV: Cotesia congregata bracovirus; CpPV: Cotesia plutellae polydnavirus, Dmel: Drosophila melanogaster; Drer: Danio rerio; Gind: Glyptapanteles indiensis; Hsap: Homo sapiens; MCV: Molluscum contagiosum virus; MdBV: Microplitis demolitor bracovirus; Mmus: Mus musculus; Nvec: Nematostella vectensis; Spur: Strongylocentrotus purpuratus; Tcas: Tribolium castaneum, Tnig: Tetraodon nigroviridis; VVC: Vaccinia virus; Xlae: Xenopus laevis.

Fig. 2

Domain architectures and context graph. Domain architectures are labeled with the gene name, species abbreviation and gi numbers separated by underscores. The contextual graph in the center represents domain architectures of BEN and POZ domain containing proteins. The arrows represent the directionality of the domain organization with the arrow head pointing to the C-terminus. Domains are denoted by their standard abbreviations. Additional domain abbreviations include: CC: coiled coil regions, SCML1: Sex comb on mid-leg1 N-terminal like domain, X: uncharacterized polydnavirus specific domain, Species abbreviations are as in figure 1.