Evolution oftheSNF2family ofproteins: subfamilies withdistinct sequencesandfunctions

TheSNF2family ofproteins includes representatives fromavariety ofspecies withroles incellular processessuchastranscriptional regulation (e.g. MOT1, SNF2andBRM), maintenance ofchromosome stability during mitosis (e.g. lodestar) andvarious aspects of processing ofDNA damage,including nucleotide excision repair (e.g. RAD16andERCC6), recombinational pathways (e.g. RAD54)andpost-replication daughter strand gaprepair (e.g. RAD5). Thisfamily alsoincludes manyproteins withnoknownfunction. Tobetter characterize this family ofproteins wehave usedmolecular phylogenetic techniques toinfer evolutionary relationships amongthefamily members. We havedivided theSNF2family into multiple subfamilies, eachofwhichrepresents whatwe propose tobea functionally andevolutionarily distinct group. Wehave thenusedthesubfamily structure topredict the functions ofsomeoftheuncharacterized proteins in theSNF2family. Wediscuss possible implications of thisevolutionary analysis onthegeneral properties andevolution oftheSNF2family.