Search results for "Structural Biology."

Classes of non-conventional tetraspanins defined by alternative splicing

2019

AbstractTetraspanins emerge as a family of membrane proteins mediating an exceptional broad diversity of functions. The naming refers to their four transmembrane segments, which define the tetraspanins‘ typical membrane topology. In this study, we analyzed alternative splicing of tetraspanins. Besides isoforms with four transmembrane segments, most mRNA sequences are coding for isoforms with one, two or three transmembrane segments, representing structurally mono-, di- and trispanins. Moreover, alternative splicing may alter transmembrane topology, delete parts of the large extracellular loop, or generate alternative N- or C-termini. As a result, we define structure-based classes of non-con…

The Wnt-specific astacin proteinase HAS-7 restricts head organizer formation in Hydra

2021

Abstract Background The Hydra head organizer acts as a signaling center that initiates and maintains the primary body axis in steady state polyps and during budding or regeneration. Wnt/beta-Catenin signaling functions as a primary cue controlling this process, but how Wnt ligand activity is locally restricted at the protein level is poorly understood. Here we report a proteomic analysis of Hydra head tissue leading to the identification of an astacin family proteinase as a Wnt processing factor. Results Hydra astacin-7 (HAS-7) is expressed from gland cells as an apical-distal gradient in the body column, peaking close beneath the tentacle zone. HAS-7 siRNA knockdown abrogates HyWnt3 proteo…

"Design and application of a data-independent precursor and product ion repository."

2012

The functional design and application of a data-independent LC-MS precursor and product ion repository for protein identification, quantification, and validation is conceptually described. The ion repository was constructed from the sequence search results of a broad range of discovery experiments investigating various tissue types of two closely related mammalian species. The relative high degree of similarity in protein complement, ion detection, and peptide and protein identification allows for the analysis of normalized precursor and product ion intensity values, as well as standardized retention times, creating a multidimensional/orthogonal queryable, qualitative, and quantitative spac…

DEVELOPMENT OF NONTOXIC BIO-ADHESIVES FOR WET ENVIRONMENTS

2021

Reversible inhibition of C1Q release from guinea pig macrophages by 2,2'-dipyridyl: Evidence for a posttranslational hydroxylation step in the biosyn…

1978

Molecular determinants of large cargo transport into the nucleus

2020

Nucleocytoplasmic transport is tightly regulated by the nuclear pore complex (NPC). Among the thousands of molecules that cross the NPC, even very large (>15 nm) cargoes such as pathogens, mRNAs and pre-ribosomes can pass the NPC intact. For these cargoes, there is little quantitative understanding of the requirements for their nuclear import, especially the role of multivalent binding to transport receptors via nuclear localisation sequences (NLSs) and the effect of size on import efficiency. Here, we assayed nuclear import kinetics of 30 large cargo models based on four capsid-like particles in the size range of 17–36 nm, with tuneable numbers of up to 240 NLSs. We show that the requireme…

Homology modeling of an RNP domain from a human RNA-binding protein: Homology-constrained energy optimization provides a criterion for distinguishing…

1998

We have recently described an automated approach for homology modeling using restrained molecular dynamics and simulated annealing procedures (Li et al, Protein Sci., 6:956-970,1997). We have employed this approach for constructing a homology model of the putative RNA-binding domain of the human RNA-binding protein with multiple splice sites (RBP-MS). The regions of RBP-MS which are homologous to the template protein snRNP U1A were constrained by "homology distance constraints," while the conformation of the non-homologous regions were defined only by a potential energy function. A full energy function without explicit solvent was employed to ensure that the calculated structures have good …

Effective approach for calculations of absolute stability of proteins using focused dielectric constants

2009

The ability to predict the absolute stability of proteins based on their corresponding sequence and structure is a problem of great fundamental and practical importance. In this work, we report an extensive, refinement and validation of our recent approach (Roca et al., FEBS Lett 2007;581:2065-2071) for predicting absolute values of protein stability DeltaG(fold). This approach employs the semimacroscopic protein dipole Langevin dipole method in its linear response approximation version (PDLD/S-LRA) while using the best fitted values of the dielectric constants epsilon'(p) and epsilon'(eff) for the self energy and charge-charge interactions, respectively. The method is validated on a divers…

Anharmonic activations in proteins and peptide model systems and their connection with supercooled water thermodynamics

2016

International audience; — Proteins, the nano-machines of living systems, are highly dynamic molecules. The timescale of functionally relevant motions spans over a very broad range, from femtoseconds to several seconds. In particular, the pico-to nanoseconds region is characterized by side-chain and backbone anharmonic fluctuations that are responsible for many biological tasks like ligand binding, substrate recognition and enzymatic activity. Neutron scattering on hydrated protein powders reveals two main activations of anharmonic dynamics, characterized by different onset temperature and amplitude. Here we review our work on synthetic polypeptides, native proteins, and single amino acids t…

In silico molecular investigations of pyridine N-Oxide compounds as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2: 3D QSAR, molecular docking modeling, and ADME…

2020

The new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 virus is causing a severe pneumonia in human, provoking the serious outbreak epidemic CoV-2. Since its appearance in Wuhan, China on December 2019, CoV-2 becomes the biggest challenge the world is facing today, including the discovery of antiviral drug for SARS-CoV-2. In this study, the potential inhibitory of a class of human SARS inhibitors, namely pyridine N-oxide derivatives, against CoV-2 was addressed by quantitative structure-activity relationship 3 D-QSAR. The reliable CoMSIA developed model of 110 pyridine N-oxide based-antiviral compounds, showed Q