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H3TH domain of the 5'-3' exonuclease of Taq DNA polymerase I and homologs H3TH (helix-3-turn-helix) domains of the 5'-3' exonuclease (53EXO) of mutli-domain DNA polymerase I and single domain protein homologs are included in this family. Taq DNA polymerase I contains a polymerase domain for synthesizing a new DNA strand and a 53EXO domain for cleaving RNA primers or damaged DNA strands. Taq's 53EXO recognizes and endonucleolytically cleaves a structure-specific DNA substrate that has a bifurcated downstream duplex and an upstream template-primer duplex that overlaps the downstream duplex by 1 bp. The 53EXO cleaves the unpaired 5'-arm of the overlap flap DNA substrate. 5'-3' exonucleases are members of the structure-specific, 5' nuclease family that catalyzes hydrolysis of DNA duplex-containing nucleic acid structures during DNA replication, repair, and recombination. These nucleases contain a PIN (PilT N terminus) domain with a helical arch/clamp region/I domain (not included here) and inserted within the PIN domain is an atypical helix-hairpin-helix-2 (HhH2)-like region. This atypical HhH2 region, the H3TH domain, has an extended loop with at least three turns between the first two helices, and only three of the four helices appear to be conserved. Both the H3TH domain and the helical arch/clamp region are involved in DNA binding. Studies suggest that a glycine-rich loop in the H3TH domain contacts the phosphate backbone of the template strand in the downstream DNA duplex. The nucleases within this family have a carboxylate rich active site that is involved in binding essential divalent metal ion cofactors (i. e., Mg2+ or Mn2+ or Zn2+) required for nuclease activity. The first metal binding site is composed entirely of Asp/Glu residues from the PIN domain, whereas, the second metal binding site is composed generally of two Asp residues from the PIN domain and two Asp residues from the H3TH domain. Together with the helical arch and network of amino acids interacting with metal binding ions, the H3TH region defines a positively charged active-site DNA-binding groove in structure-specific 5' nucleases. |
Jiyao W et al.(2023). "The conserved domain database in 2023.",