We could perform a gene knockout and observe aberrant phenotypes in T. thermophila. Further, we could perform X-ray crystallography and infer some aspects of the protein’s function based on its crystal structure (any homology to other proteins would be useful).
The gene profile on ciliates.org indicated that this gene had a zinc finger domain here: http://ciliate.org/index.php/feature/details/TTHERM_00326790. The BLAST search actually did not indicate any homology domains, and we are not exactly sure why this discrepancy came about.
How could you determine the function of hypzif?
We could perform a gene knockout and observe aberrant phenotypes in T. thermophila. Further, we could perform X-ray crystallography and infer some aspects of the protein’s function based on its crystal structure (any homology to other proteins would be useful).
How did you know it had the presence of a zinc finger domain? BLAST?
The gene profile on ciliates.org indicated that this gene had a zinc finger domain here: http://ciliate.org/index.php/feature/details/TTHERM_00326790. The BLAST search actually did not indicate any homology domains, and we are not exactly sure why this discrepancy came about.