Occurrence of a Repeating 11-Mer Amino Acid Sequence Motif in Diverse Organisms

A repeating 11-mer amino acid sequence motif, first recognized in plant seed proteins, has been observed in such diverse organisms as the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and the eubacteria Haemophilus influenzae and Dienococcus radiodurans. Amino acid preferences at each position in the motif are presented, as are dot matrix sequence comparisons between several of the proteins harboring the repeating motif. Although implicated in plant abiotic stress tolerance, no molecular function for the proteins carrying the motif has yet been uncovered.