Summary
A statistical analysis of the data tabulated in the Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure 1972 indicates that the observed frequency of occurrence of the tripeptides Asn-X-Ser and Asn-X-Thr is approximately one third of the expected in eukaryotic proteins, but in prokaryotic proteins the observation agrees closely with expectation. Thus the lowered frequency of these tripeptides found by Hunt and Dayhoff is restricted to eukaryotic proteins. Of all the Asn-X-Ser/Thr sequences examined, those which contain covalently attached carbohydrates are found only in the extracellular proteins of eukaryote. These observations are discussed in relation to the evolution of glycoproteins which seems to have occurred in the ancestor of eukaryotes after the divergence from prokaryotes.
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Sinohara, H., Maruyama, T. Evolution of glycoproteins as judged by the frequency of occurrence of the tripeptides Asn-X-Ser and Asn-X-Thr in proteins. J Mol Evol 2, 117–122 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01653991
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01653991