Recently [1,2] a number of proteins have been found to contain a conserved
cysteine-rich domain of about 60 amino-acid residues. These proteins are:
Caenorhabditis elegans mec-3; a protein required for the differentiation of
the set of six touch receptor neurons in this nematode.
Caenorhabditis elegans lin-11; a protein required for the asymmetric
division of vulval blast cells.
Vertebrate insulin gene enhancer binding protein isl-1. Isl-1 binds to one
of the two cis-acting protein-binding domains of the insulin gene.
Vertebrate homeobox proteins lim-1, lim-2 (lim-5) and lim3.
Vertebrate lmx-1, which acts as a transcriptional activator by binding to
the FLAT element; a β-cell-specific transcriptional enhancer found in
the insulin gene.
Mammalian LH-2, a transcriptional regulatory protein involved in the
control of cell differentiation in developing lymphoid and neural cell
types.
Drosophila protein apterous, required for the normal development of the
wing and halter imaginal discs.
Vertebrate protein kinases LIMK-1 and LIMK-2.
Mammalian rhombotins. Rhombotin 1 (RBTN1 or TTG-1) and rhombotin-2 (RBTN2
or TTG-2) are proteins of about 160 amino acids whose genes are disrupted
by chromosomal translocations in T-cell leukemia.
Mammalian and avian cysteine-rich protein (CRP), a 192 amino-acid protein
of unknown function. Seems to interact with zyxin.
Mammalian cysteine-rich intestinal protein (CRIP), a small protein which
seems to have a role in zinc absorption and may function as an
intracellular zinc transport protein.
Vertebrate paxillin, a cytoskeletal focal adhesion protein.
Mouse testin. Mouse testin should not be confused with rat testin which is
a thiol protease homolog (see <PDOC00126>).
Sunflower pollen specific protein SF3.
Chicken zyxin. Zyxin is a low-abundance adhesion plaque protein which has
been shown to interact with CRP.
Yeast protein LRG1 which is involved in sporulation [4].
Yeast rho-type GTPase activating protein RGA1/DBM1.
These proteins generally have two tandem copies of a domain, called LIM (for
Lin-11 Isl-1 Mec-3) in their N-terminal section. Zyxin and paxillin are
exceptions in that they contains respectively three and four LIM domains at
their C-terminal extremity. In apterous, isl-1, LH-2, lin-11, lim-1 to lim-3,
lmx-1 and ceh-14 and mec-3 there is a homeobox domain some 50 to 95 amino
acids after the LIM domains.
In the LIM domain, there are seven conserved cysteine residues and a
histidine. The arrangement followed by these conserved residues is C-x(2)-C-x(16,23)-H-x(2)-[CH]-x(2)-C-x(2)-C-x(16,21)-C-x(2,3)-[CHD]. The LIM domain
binds two zinc ions [5]. LIM does not bind DNA, rather it seems to act as
interface for protein-protein interaction. We developed a pattern that spans
the first half of the LIM domain.
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