Search results for "SECONDARY STRUCTURE"
showing 10 items of 106 documents
Tension causes structural unfolding of intracellular intermediate filaments
2020
AbstractIntermediate filament (IF) proteins are a class of proteins that constitute different filamentous structures in mammalian cells. As such, IF proteins are part of the load-bearing cytoskeleton and support the nuclear envelope. Molecular dynamics simulations have shown that IF proteins undergo secondary structural changes to compensate mechanical loads, which has been confirmed by experimental in vitro studies on IF hydrogels. However, the structural response of intracellular IF to mechanical load has yet to be elucidated in cellulo. Here, we use in situ nonlinear Raman imaging combined with multivariate data analysis to quantify the intracellular secondary structure of the IF cytoske…
Mutational analysis of the RNA-binding domain of the Prunus necrotic ringspot virus (PNRSV) movement protein reveals its requirement for cell-to-cell…
2005
AbstractThe movement protein (MP) of Prunus necrotic ringspot virus (PNRSV) is required for cell-to-cell movement. MP subcellular localization studies using a GFP fusion protein revealed highly punctate structures between neighboring cells, believed to represent plasmodesmata. Deletion of the RNA-binding domain (RBD) of PNRSV MP abolishes the cell-to-cell movement. A mutational analysis on this RBD was performed in order to identify in vivo the features that govern viral transport. Loss of positive charges prevented the cell-to-cell movement even though all mutants showed a similar accumulation level in protoplasts to those observed with the wild-type (wt) MP. Synthetic peptides representin…
Biophysical Characterization of TRPV2 Ion Channel
2012
TRPV2 is a member of the superfamily of the Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) ion channels. These channels are assembled into homotetramers and allow cations across the membrane in response to physico-chemical stimuli such as heat, pressure, osmotic changes, etc. TRPV2 is an orphan receptor, since no specific endogenous ligand has been identified yet. To better understand the role of TRPV2 and to go further into its function, sequence analysis of orthologs for TRPV2 has been performed in order to define common and differential architectural regions. Preliminary biophysical characterization such as thermal stability, and secondary structure composition analysis has been carried out on the d…
Characterization of antigenic epitopes of potato virus Y.
1993
Immunochemical analysis of overlapping synthetic hexapeptides covering the entire length of the coat protein of potato virus Y (PVY) revealed immunodominant regions both at the N-terminal and at the C-terminal end of the coat protein. Immunization of rabbits with synthetic peptides representing N- and C-terminal regions of the coat protein resulted in production of antibodies that reacted with PVY. Antigenicity of PVY peptides was found to correlate with predicted beta turns, with hydrophilicity and with predicted chain flexibility. Characterization of the immunochemical properties of PVY will facilitate the development of detection methods for potyviruses.
Polypept(o)ides: Hybrid Systems Based on Polypeptides and Polypeptoids.
2015
Polypept(o)ides combine the multifunctionality and intrinsic stimuli-responsiveness of synthetic polypeptides with the "stealth"-like properties of the polypeptoid polysarcosine (poly(N-methyl glycine)). This class of block copolymers can be synthesized by sequential ring opening polymerization of α-amino acid N-carboxy-anhydrides (NCAs) and correspondingly of the N-substituted glycine N-carboxyanhydride (NNCA). The resulting block copolymers are characterized by Poisson-like molecular weight distributions, full end group integrity, and dispersities below 1.2. While polysarcosine may be able to tackle the currently arising issues regarding the gold standard PEG, including storage diseases i…
Secondary Structure-Driven Self-Assembly of Thiol-Reactive Polypept(o)ides
2021
Secondary structure formation differentiates polypeptides from most of the other synthetic polymers, and the transitions from random coils to rod-like α-helices or β-sheets represent an additional parameter to direct self-assembly and the morphology of nanostructures. We investigated the influence of distinct secondary structures on the self-assembly of reactive amphiphilic polypept(o)ides. The individual morphologies can be preserved by core cross-linking via chemoselective disulfide bond formation. A series of thiol-responsive copolymers of racemic polysarcosine-block-poly(S-ethylsulfonyl-dl-cysteine) (pSar-b-p(dl)Cys), enantiopure polysarcosine-block-poly(S-ethylsulfonyl-l-cysteine) (pSa…
Secondary Structure-Driven Hydrogelation Using Foldable Telechelic Polymer-Peptide Conjugates.
2018
The synthesis of ABA and ABA' triblock polyethylene glycol-and polysarcosine-peptide conjugates is reported. The A/A' peptides are based on phenylalanine(F)-histidine(H) pentapeptide sequences FHFHF, which promote pH-switchable β-sheet self-assembly into nanorods in water. Only parallel β-sheet-driven folding and intermolecular assembly using ABA triblock polymer-peptide conjugates leads to interstrand cross-linking and hydrogelation, highlighting the impact of supramolecular interactions-directed structure formation at the nano- and mesoscopic level.
Reconstructing the free-energy landscape of Met-enkephalin using dihedral principal component analysis and well-tempered metadynamics
2013
Well-Tempered Metadynamics (WTmetaD) is an efficient method to enhance the reconstruction of the free-energy surface of proteins. WTmetaD guarantees a faster convergence in the long time limit in comparison with the standard metadynamics. It still suffers however from the same limitation, i.e. the non trivial choice of pertinent collective variables (CVs). To circumvent this problem, we couple WTmetaD with a set of CVs generated from a dihedral Principal Component Analysis (dPCA) on the Ramachadran dihedral angles describing the backbone structure of the protein. The dPCA provides a generic method to extract relevant CVs built from internal coordinates. We illustrate the robustness of this …
Conformational changes involved in thermal aggregation processes of bovine serum albumin
2003
We report a kinetic study on thermal aggregation process of the model protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) in low concentration regime. Aim of this study is to provide information on relationship between conformational changes and initial step of aggregation. The experimental approach is based on steady-state fluorescence spectra of the two tryptophans located in two different domains, in way to study conformational changes in the surrounding of these residues. We also follow emission spectra of Fluorescein-5-Maleimide dye bound to the single free cysteine of BSA. Complementary information on the extent of aggregation and on the structural changes is obtained by Rayleigh scattering and circul…
Thermal aggregation of beta-lactoglobulin in presence of metal ions.
2007
In this work, we report a study of the effects of zinc and copper ions on the heat-induced aggregation of beta-lactoglobulin (BLG). Kinetics investigations on aggregates growth by light scattering measurements and on secondary structure changes by FTIR absorption measurements show the different role played by the two metals during the whole process. In particular, the presence of zinc in solution promotes the formation of aggregates of BLG at a lower temperature than copper. Then, at fixed temperature, formation of a large amount of aggregates, of large dimension, is observed for Zn-BLG in shorter time; on the contrary, the presence of copper in solution does not affect the aggregation proc…