This web page was produced as an assignment for Genetics 564, an undergraduate course at UW-Madison.
Domains
What is a domain?
Domains are conserved segments of a protein that have distinct structures or functions. It is common for domains to be involved in a variety of biological processes, as evidenced by the presence of the same domain in various proteins with different functions (1). Domains can be located anywhere on the protein coding sequence, with the three regions below used to help classify them.
Figure 1: The different regions of protein coding sequences that are used to help classify domains.
GATA2 Protein Domains
The GATA2 protein has two GATA zinc-finger domains, both 50 amino acids long. The first GATA zinc-finger domain is located from amino acid 289 to amino acid 339. The second GATA zinc-finger domain is located from amino acid 343 to amino acid 393. GATA Zinc-finger domains specifically bind the DNA sequence (A/T)GATA(A/G) (2). Domains were found using SMART, PFAM, and InterPro.
GATA2 Domain Conservation
GATA Zinc-finger domains are very highly conserved across numerous model organisms. Mutations have been observed in both GATA Zinc-finger domains in patients with ES.
Discussion
The fact that the two GATA Zinc-finger domains are highly conserved across species implies that they are crucial to normal function of the protein. A number of transcription factors, including GATA2, contain two Zinc-finger domains that bind the DNA sequence (A/T)GATA(A/G) in the regulatory regions of genes (3). Mutations in these Zinc-finger domains that affect its ability to bind the desired sequence would result in abnormal transcription activity in interacting genes.
References:
1) EMBL-EBI: What are protein domains? http://www.ebi.ac.uk/training/online/course/introduction-protein-classification-ebi/protein-classification/what-are-protein-domains
2) Yamamoto, M et al. (1990). Activity and tissue-specific expression of the transcription factor NF-E1 multigene family. Genes and Development, 4: 1650-1662.
3) InterPro - Zinc finger, GATA-type: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/entry/IPR000679
4) Smart Database: http://smart.embl-heidelberg.de/smart/show_motifs.pl?ID=GATA2_HUMAN
5) PFAM Database: http://pfam.xfam.org/protein/P23769#tabview=tab0
Image:
1) http://parts.igem.org/Protein_domains