The SSU Processome Component Utp25p is a Pseudohelicase

Rafe Helwer; J Michael Charette

doi:10.17912/micropub.biology.000606

The SSU Processome Component Utp25p is a Pseudohelicase

MicroPubl Biol. 2022 Sep 22:2022:10.17912/micropub.biology.000606. doi: 10.17912/micropub.biology.000606. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Rafe Helwer^{1

2

3}, J Michael Charette^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.
² Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
³ CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Abstract

RNA helicases are involved in nearly all aspects of RNA metabolism and factor prominently in ribosome assembly. The SSU processome includes 10 helicases and many helicase-cofactors. Together, they mediate the structural rearrangements that occur as part of ribosomal SSU assembly. During the identification of the SSU processome component Utp25/Def, it was noticed that the protein displays some sequence similarity to DEAD-box RNA helicases and is essential for growth. Interestingly, mutational ablation showed that Utp25's DEAD-box motifs are dispensable. Here, we show that the Utp25 AlphaFold prediction displays considerable structural similarity to DEAD-box helicases and is the first fully validated pseudohelicase.