期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2012
卷号：109
期号：45
页码：18482-18487
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1216635109
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：A number of prokaryotic proteins have been shown to contain nuclear localization signals (NLSs), although its biological role remains sometimes unclear. Terminal proteins (TPs) of bacteriophages prime DNA replication and become covalently linked to the genome ends. We predicted NLSs within the TPs of bacteriophages from diverse families and hosts and, indeed, the TPs of {Phi}29, Nf, PRD1, Bam35, and Cp-1, out of seven TPs tested, were found to localize to the nucleus when expressed in mammalian cells. Detailed analysis of {Phi}29 TP led us to identify a bona fide NLS within residues 1-37. Importantly, gene delivery into the eukaryotic nucleus is enhanced by the presence of {Phi}29 TP attached to the 5' DNA ends. These findings show a common feature of TPs from diverse bacteriophages targeting the eukaryotic nucleus and suggest a possible common function by facilitating the horizontal transfer of genes between prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
