PASTA domain

The PASTA domain is a small protein domain that can bind to beta-lactam rings found in antibiotics. The domain was initially discovered in 2002 by Yeats and colleagues as a region of sequence similarity found in penicillin binding proteins and PknB-like kinases found in some bacteria. The name is an acronym derived from PBP and Serine/Threonine kinase Associated domain. The PASTA domain is a small protein domain that can bind to beta-lactam rings found in antibiotics. The domain was initially discovered in 2002 by Yeats and colleagues as a region of sequence similarity found in penicillin binding proteins and PknB-like kinases found in some bacteria. The name is an acronym derived from PBP and Serine/Threonine kinase Associated domain. The PASTA domain adopts a structure composed of an alpha-helix followed by three beta strands. Recent structural studies show that the extracellular region of PknB that is composed of four PASTA domains shows a linear arrangement of the domains. PASTA domains are found in a variety of bacterial species including gram-positive firmicutes and actinobacteria.