{"doi":"10.17615/9z4g-8d97","title":"The F-Plasmid TraI Protein Contains Three Functional Domains Required for Conjugative DNA Strand Transfer","abstract":"The F-plasmid-encoded TraI protein, also known as DNA helicase I, is a bifunctional protein required for conjugative DNA transfer. The enzyme catalyzes two distinct but functionally related reactions required for the DNA processing events associated with conjugation: the site- and strand-specific transesterification (relaxase) reaction that provides the nick required to initiate strand transfer and a processive 5′-to-3′ helicase reaction that provides the motive force for strand transfer. Previous studies have identified the relaxase domain, which encompasses the first ∼310 amino acids of the protein. The helicase-associated motifs lie between amino acids 990 and 1450. The function of the region between amino acids 310 and 990 and the region from amino acid 1450 to the C-terminal end is unknown. A protein lacking the C-terminal 252 amino acids (TraIΔ252) was constructed and shown to have essentially wild-type levels of transesterase and helicase activity. In addition, the protein was capable of a functional interaction with other components of the minimal relaxosome. However, TraIΔ252 was not able to support conjugative DNA transfer in genetic complementation experiments. We conclude that TraIΔ252 lacks an essential C-terminal domain that is required for DNA transfer. We speculate this domain may be involved in essential protein-protein interactions with other components of the DNA transfer machinery.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2020,"id":143050,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9582,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":526162,"name":"H. Ragonese","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":526163,"name":"S. W. Matson","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:17:34.768426Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}