Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Viruses infecting marine picoplancton encode functional potassium ion channels

2014; Elsevier BV; Volume: 466-467; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.virol.2014.05.002

1096-0341

Fenja Siotto, Corinna Martin, Oliver Rauh, James L. Van Etten, Indra Schroeder, Anna Moroni, Gerhard Thiel,

Plant Disease Resistance and Genetics

Phycodnaviruses are dsDNA viruses, which infect algae. Their large genomes encode many gene products, like small K+ channels, with homologs in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Screening for K+ channels revealed their abundance in viruses from fresh-water habitats. Recent sequencing of viruses from marine algae or from salt water in Antarctica revealed sequences with the predicted characteristics of K+ channels but with some unexpected features. Two genes encode either 78 or 79 amino acid proteins, which are the smallest known K+ channels. Also of interest is an unusual sequence in the canonical α-helixes in K+ channels. Structural prediction algorithms indicate that the new channels have the conserved α-helix folds but the algorithms failed to identify the expected transmembrane domains flanking the K+ channel pores. In spite of these unexpected properties electophysiological studies confirmed that the new proteins are functional K+ channels.