Figure 7. Comparison of YZGD and the Nudix hydrolases from B. cereus.

A BLAST search of the B. cereus ATCC14579 database using the last 163 amino acids of YZGD uncovered the Nudix hydrolases of B. cereus. This refined BLAST search was carried out because many of the top hits of the BLAST search of non-redundant databases turned up enzymes from Bacillus organisms, and the activities of most of the Nudix hydrolases from B. cereus ATCC14579 have been determined [16]. The top five hits are UDP-sugar hydrolases, but YZGD is not a UDP-sugar hydrolase. While both YZGD and the B. cereus enzymes contain the Nudix signature sequence, only the UDP-sugar hydrolases contain the ‘NGD’ UDP-sugar signature sequence. Note, however, that both YZGD and many of the Nudix hydrolases from B. cereus require Mn²⁺ instead of the more typical Mg²⁺ Nudix hydrolase activator.