The N-end rule pathway is a proteolytic system in which recognition components (N-recognins) recognize a set of N-terminal residues as part of degradation signals (N-degrons). Two studies in this issue report the structures of Ubr boxes, a substrate recognition domain of eukaryotic N-recognins. We discuss how eukaryotic and prokaryotic N-recognins use a similar molecular principle to recognize a different set of N-degrons.
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Acknowledgements
We thank K. Gehring, H.K. Song and T. Tasaki for helpful discussions and critical reading of the manuscript. Y.T.K. is supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health and the World Class University and World Class Institute programs of the National Research Foundation and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea (grant no. R31-2008-000-10103-0).
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Sriram, S., Kwon, Y. The molecular principles of N-end rule recognition. Nat Struct Mol Biol 17, 1164–1165 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb1010-1164
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb1010-1164
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