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Journal of Bacteriology, February 2001, p. 1012-1021, Vol. 183, No. 3
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.3.1012-1021.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Size Comparisons among Integral Membrane Transport Protein Homologues in Bacteria, Archaea, and Eucarya

Yong Joon Chung, Christel Krueger, David Metzgar, and Milton H. Saier Jr.^*

Department of Biology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0116

Received 7 July 2000/Accepted 3 November 2000

Integral membrane proteins from over 20 ubiquitous families of channels, secondary carriers, and primary active transporters were analyzed for average size differences between homologues from the three domains of life: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eucarya. The results showed that while eucaryotic homologues are consistently larger than their bacterial counterparts, archaeal homologues are significantly smaller. These size differences proved to be due primarily to variations in the sizes of hydrophilic domains localized to the N termini, the C termini, or specific loops between transmembrane -helical spanners, depending on the family. Within the Eucarya domain, plant homologues proved to be substantially smaller than their animal and fungal counterparts. By contrast, extracytoplasmic receptors of ABC-type uptake systems in Archaea proved to be larger on average than those of their bacterial homologues, while cytoplasmic enzymes from different organisms exhibited little or no significant size differences. These observations presumably reflect evolutionary pressure and molecular mechanisms that must have been operative since these groups of organisms diverged from each other.

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^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0116. Phone: (858) 534-4084. Fax: (858) 534-7108. E-mail: msaier{at}ucsd.edu.

Permanent address: Department of Life Science, Jeonju University, Chonju, Korea.

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Journal of Bacteriology, February 2001, p. 1012-1021, Vol. 183, No. 3
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.3.1012-1021.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

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