Bio Background |
This protein encodes an enzyme that synthesizes selenophosphate from selenide and ATP. Selenophosphate is the selenium donor used to synthesize selenocysteine, which is co-translationally incorporated into selenoproteins at in-frame UGA codons. This protein itself contains a selenocysteine residue in its predicted active site. The 3' UTR of the gene has a stem-loop secondary structure called a selenocysteine insertion sequence (SECIS) element, which allows UGA to direct the incorporation of selenocysteine rather than signal a translational stop. |
Bio References |
Tamura, T., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101(46):16162-16167 (2004). Lescure, A., et al., J. Biol. Chem. 274(53):38147-38154 (1999). Guimaraes, M.J., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 93(26):15086-15091 (1996). Guimaraes, M.J., et al., Development 121(10):3335-3346 (1995). |