Vertebrate nuclear factor 90 (NF90, also known as ILF3, DRBP76 or NFAR-1), contains two double-stranded RNA-binding motifs (dsRBMs) and interacts with highly structured RNAs as well as the dsRNA-activated protein kinase (PKR).
Metazoan NF45 (also known as ILF2), appears to function predominantly as a heterodimeric complex with NF90.
Vertebrate spermatid perinuclear RNA-binding protein (SPNR, also known as STRBP), a testes specific paralogue of NF90.
Metazoan Zinc-finger protein associated with RNA (Zfr).
Nuclear factors NF90 and NF45 form a protein complex involved in a variety of cellular processes and are thought to affect gene expression both at the transcriptional and translational level. In addition, this complex affects the replication of several viruses through direct interactions with viral RNA. NF90 and NF45 dimerize through their common DZF domain. The DZF domain shows structural similarity to the template-free nucleotidyltransferase family of RNA modifying enzymes. However, the lack of conserved catalytic residues suggests that the DZF domain encodes a 'pseudotransferase' that is no longer able to catalyze transfer of nucleotides.
The DZF dimerisation domain form an oblong structure with a flat face on one side and a curved face on the other. The DZF domain is bipartite and characterised by an N-terminal mixed alpha-beta region that contains a central anti-parallel beta-sheet and a C-terminal alpha-helical region. The overall structure has a pseudo two-fold rotational symmetry.
The central beta-sheet forms the base of a cleft between the N- and C-terminal halves while dimerization is mediated by the alpha-helices at the C terminus [ (PUBMED:22833610) ].
Family alignment:
There are 2259 DZF domains in 2259 proteins in SMART's nrdb database.
Click on the following links for more information.
Evolution (species in which this domain is found)
Taxonomic distribution of proteins containing DZF domain.
This tree includes only several representative species. The complete taxonomic breakdown of all proteins with DZF domain is also avaliable.
Click on the protein counts, or double click on taxonomic names to display all proteins containing DZF domain in the selected taxonomic class.
Literature (relevant references for this domain)
Primary literature is listed below; Automatically-derived, secondary literature is also avaliable.
Systematic identification of novel protein domain families associated with nuclear functions.
Genome Res. 2002; 12: 47-56
Display abstract
A systematic computational analysis of protein sequences containing known nuclear domains led to the identification of 28 novel domain families. This represents a 26% increase in the starting set of 107 known nuclear domain families used for the analysis. Most of the novel domains are present in all major eukaryotic lineages, but 3 are species specific. For about 500 of the 1200 proteins that contain these new domains, nuclear localization could be inferred, and for 700, additional features could be predicted. For example, we identified a new domain, likely to have a role downstream of the unfolded protein response; a nematode-specific signalling domain; and a widespread domain, likely to be a noncatalytic homolog of ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes.
