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PROSITE documentation PDOC50822 |
The Piwi box (or Sting domain) is an about 40 to 80 amino-acid conserved region, which was first identified in the C-terminal part of Drosophila Piwi and Sting proteins, and of related proteins from human, Caenorhabditis elegans, Arabidopsis thaliana, fission yeast and Dictyostelium discoideum [1,2]. It was later recognized that this conserved region is part of a larger 300-amino-acid domain, called Piwi, which is also found in some prokaryotic proteins of unknown function [3]. The Piwi domain containing proteins are often involved in stem-cell maintenance and/or post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) through RNA interference (RNAi), the mechanism through which double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) silence cognate genes [3]. Neither the structure nor the function of the Piwi domain are known.
Some proteins known to contain a Piwi domain are listed below:
The profile we have developed covers the entire Piwi domain.
Last update:May 2002 / First entry.
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PROSITE method (with tools and information) covered by this documentation:
1 | Authors | Cox D.N. Chao A. Baker J. Chang L. Qiao D. Lin H. |
Title | A novel class of evolutionarily conserved genes defined by piwi are essential for stem cell self-renewal. | |
Source | Genes Dev. 12:3715-3727(1998). | |
PubMed ID | 9851978 |
2 | Authors | Schmidt A. Palumbo G. Bozzetti M.P. Tritto P. Pimpinelli S. Schafer U. |
Title | Genetic and molecular characterization of sting, a gene involved in crystal formation and meiotic drive in the male germ line of Drosophila melanogaster. | |
Source | Genetics 151:749-760(1999). | |
PubMed ID | 9927466 |
3 | Authors | Cerutti L. Mian N. Bateman A. |
Title | Domains in gene silencing and cell differentiation proteins: the novel PAZ domain and redefinition of the Piwi domain. | |
Source | Trends Biochem. Sci. 25:481-482(2000). | |
PubMed ID | 11050429 |
4 | Authors | Cox D.N. Chao A. Lin H. |
Title | piwi encodes a nucleoplasmic factor whose activity modulates the number and division rate of germline stem cells. | |
Source | Development 127:503-514(2000). | |
PubMed ID | 10631171 |