Figure 3.

Logo alignment of the exon encoding the zinc-coordinating motif in the AID, APOBEC1, APOBEC3, and APOBEC2 clusters. The height of the letter represents the conservation of that given residue. The zinc-coordinating H [AV]E-x(24-36)-PCxxC motif is labeled. The secondary structure, predicted from the APOBEC2 structure, is shown below the alignment. The α helices are shown as cylinders and the β-strands as arrows. α Helices 2 and 3, providing the scaffold for the catalytic core, are labeled in blue. The conserved loops that might have a role in substrate recognition are color-coded (pink and orange) and indicated by arrows. The Logo alignment was generated using WebLogo [110] on a subset of the alignment provided as Additional data file 1 in which APOBEC4 and outgroup sequences were excluded.