SAM domains: uniform structure, diversity of function.

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA-DOE Center for Genomics and Proteomics, Molecular Biology Institute, Boyer Hall, 611 Charles E. Young Drive E, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1570, USA.

Sterile alpha motif (SAM) domains are known to exhibit diverse protein-protein interaction modes. They can form multiple self-association architectures and also bind to various non-SAM domain-containing proteins. Surprising new work adds a completely unanticipated function for some SAM domains - the ability to bind RNA. Such functional diversity within a homologous protein family presents a significant challenge for bioinformatic function assignment.

PMID: 14659692 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]