FEN-like PIN domains of PIN domain of the 5'-3' exonuclease of Thermus aquaticus DNA polymerase I (Taq) and homologs.
The 5'-3' exonuclease (53EXO) PIN (PilT N terminus) domain of multi-domain DNA polymerase I and single domain protein homologs are included in this family. Taq contains a polymerase domain for synthesizing a new DNA strand and a 53EXO PIN domain for cleaving RNA primers or damaged DNA strands. Taq's 53EXO PIN domain recognizes and endonucleolytically cleaves a structure-specific DNA substrate that has a bifurcated downstream duplex and an upstream template-primer duplex that overlaps the downstream duplex by 1 bp. The 53EXO PIN domain cleaves the unpaired 5'-arm of the overlap flap DNA substrate. 5'-3' exonucleases are members of the structure-specific, 5' nuclease family (FEN-like) that catalyzes hydrolysis of DNA duplex-containing nucleic acid structures during DNA replication, repair, and recombination. Canonical members of the FEN-like family possess a PIN domain with a two-helical structure insert (also known as the helical arch, helical clamp or I domain) of variable length (approximately 16 to 800 residues), and at the C-terminus of the PIN domain a H3TH (helix-3-turn-helix) domain, an atypical helix-hairpin-helix-2-like region. Both the H3TH domain (not included in this model) and the helical arch/clamp region are involved in DNA binding. The PIN domain belongs to a large nuclease superfamily. The structural properties of the PIN domain indicate its putative active center, consisting of invariant acidic amino acid residues (putative metal-binding residues), is geometrically similar in the active center of structure-specific 5' nucleases, PIN-domain ribonucleases of eukaryotic rRNA editing proteins, and bacterial toxins of toxin-antitoxin (TA) operons.
Comment:The active site includes a set of conserved catalytic residues that are essential for binding divalent metal ions required for nuclease activity. One or two of these residues are in the H3TH domain (not shown).
Comment:Together with the helical arch and network of amino acids interacting with metal binding ions, the H3TH region (not included) defines a positively charged active-site DNA-binding groove in structure-specific 5' nucleases.
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