YbeY Metallopeptidase (YBEY)

The highly conserved bacterial ybeY gene is a heat shock gene whose function is not fully understood. YbeY protein is involved in protein synthesis, as Escherichia coli mutants with ybeY deleted exhibit severe translational defects in vivo.YbeY is a hypothetical protein that belongs to the UPF0054 family. The structure reveals that the protein binds a metal ion in a tetrahedral geometry. Three coordination sites are provided by histidine residues, while the fourth might be a water molecule that is not seen in the diffraction map because of its relatively low resolution. X-ray fluorescence analysis of the purified protein suggests that the metal is a nickel ion. The structure of ybeY and its sequence similarity to a number of predicted metal-dependent hydrolases provides a functional assignment for this protein family.