Fig. 3

Multiple sequence alignment of CaM protein sequences. The sequence alignment shows presence of four conserved D-x-D motifs, one in each EF hand. The D-x-D motif was conserved at positions 15, and 17 in each EF-hand. In addition to the presence of conserved D-x-D motifs in the EF-hands, CaMs were also contained several conserved D (aspartate) and E (glutamate) amino acids in each EF-hand. The D and E amino acids are prominent calcium sensors that bind calcium ions in the EF-hands. Therefore, CaM contains several conserved D and E amino acids in the EF-hands to increase the calcium binding affinity. Multiple sequence alignment was conducted using Multalin software