PROSITE documentation PDOC50829

GYF domain profile

The glycine-tyrosine-phenylalanine (GYF) domain is an around 60-amino acid domain which contains a conserved GP[YF]xxxx[MV]xxWxxx[GN]YF motif. It was identified in the human intracellular protein termed CD2 binding protein 2 (CD2BP2), which binds to a site containing two tandem PPPGHR segments within the cytoplasmic region of CD2. Binding experiments and mutational analyses have demonstrated the critical importance of the GYF tripeptide in ligand binding. A GYF domain is also found in several other eukaryotic proteins of unknown function [1]. It has been proposed that the GYF domain found in these proteins could also be involved in proline-rich sequence recognition [2].

Resolution of the structure of the CD2BP2 GYF domain by NMR spectroscopy revealed a compact domain with a β-β-α-β-β topology, where the single α-helix is tilted away from the twisted, anti-parallel β-sheet (see <PDB:1GYF>). The conserved residues of the GYF domain create a contiguous patch of predominantly hydrophobic nature which forms an integral part of the ligand-binding site [2]. There is limited homology within the C-terminal 20-30 amino acids of various GYF domains, supporting the idea that this part of the domain is structurally but not functionally important [3].

The profile we developed spans the entire GYF domain.