About the Authors

Pawel Szczesny

Affiliations Department of Protein Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany, Department of Bioinformatics, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

Dirk Linke

Affiliation Department of Protein Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany

Astrid Ursinus

Affiliation Department of Protein Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany

Kerstin Bär

Affiliation Department of Protein Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany

Heinz Schwarz

Affiliation Department of Protein Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany

Tanja M. Riess

Affiliation Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen, Germany

Volkhard A. J. Kempf

Affiliation Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen, Germany

Andrei N. Lupas

andrei.lupas@tuebingen.mpg.de

Affiliation Department of Protein Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany

Jörg Martin

Affiliation Department of Protein Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany

Kornelius Zeth

Affiliation Department of Protein Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: DL ANL JM KZ. Performed the experiments: PS DL AU KB HS KZ. Analyzed the data: PS DL ANL JM KZ. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TMR VAJK. Wrote the paper: PS DL ANL KZ. Performed the electron microscopy: DL HS. Cloned the construct: TMR VAJK. Purified and characterized the protein: AU JM; crystallized the protein: KB; determined the structure: KZ. Did the bioinformatic analyses and modeling: PS ANL.