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The prokaryotic origins of the COMMD protein family involved in eukaryotic membrane trafficking | Nature Communications
The ten eukaryotic COMMD proteins are core components of the Commander complex, with central roles in endosomal membrane trafficking and signalling. Each protein has an α-helical N-terminal (HN) domain with a C-terminal copper metabolism gene MURR1 (COMM) domain. These ten family members assemble into a heterodecameric ring composed of five specific heterodimers. In this work we have combined structural homology searches with genome-wide predicted structures to identify ancestral COMMD-like proteins that exist as single genes in Bacteria and Archaea. Although there is limited sequence similarity to the eukaryotic proteins the bacterial and archaeal COMMD-like proteins are predicted to form homomeric ring-shaped assemblies like their eukaryotic counterparts. Our biophysical studies, crystal and cryo-EM structures confirm COMMD-like proteins readily form homooligomeric rings composed of eight or ten subunits assembled from core dimeric building blocks and inter-dimer interactions that ar