Translational initiation factors IF-1 and eIF-2 alpha share an RNA-binding motif with prokaryotic ribosomal protein S1 and polynucleotide phosphorylase.
Initiation of translation is a complicated process involving numerous accessory factors whose functions remain incompletely understood. Bacterial ribosomal protein S1 is known to contain a repeated sequence motif (S1-RM), also found in polynucleotide phosphorylase, that is thought to be involved in binding to RNA. Using the technique of profile analysis, the S1-RM can also be found in bacterial and chloroplast translation initiation factor IF-1 sequences, and in the sequences of eukaryotic translation initiation factor eIF-2 alpha chains. The significance of the similarity of the sequences is very high suggesting that the occurrence of the S1-RM in these diverse proteins represents homology. The similarity of S1 to IF-1 further suggests that S1 has evolved from an IF-1 like ancestor, and therefore that the two proteins have a similar or competitive function. The most obvious common function of the proteins containing the S1-RM seems to be RNA binding, suggesting that IF-1 and eIF-2 alpha may bind to RNA.