Structure-function relationship of cytoplasmic and nuclear I?B proteins: an in silico analysis.
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ABSTRACT: Cytoplasmic I?B proteins are primary regulators that interact with NF-?B subunits in the cytoplasm of unstimulated cells. Upon stimulation, these I?B proteins are rapidly degraded, thus allowing NF-?B to translocate into the nucleus and activate the transcription of genes encoding various immune mediators. Subsequent to translocation, nuclear I?B proteins play an important role in the regulation of NF-?B transcriptional activity by acting either as activators or inhibitors. To date, molecular basis for the binding of I?B?, I?B? and I?B? along with their partners is known; however, the activation and inhibition mechanism of the remaining I?B (I?BNS, I?B? and Bcl-3) proteins remains elusive. Moreover, even though I?B proteins are structurally similar, it is difficult to determine the exact specificities of I?B proteins towards their respective binding partners. The three-dimensional structures of I?BNS, I?B? and I?B? were modeled. Subsequently, we used an explicit solvent method to perform detailed molecular dynamic simulations of these proteins along with their known crystal structures (I?B?, I?B? and Bcl-3) in order to investigate the flexibility of the ankyrin repeat domains (ARDs). Furthermore, the refined models of I?BNS, I?B? and Bcl-3 were used for multiple protein-protein docking studies for the identification of I?BNS-p50/p50, I?B?-p50/p65 and Bcl-3-p50/p50 complexes in order to study the structural basis of their activation and inhibition. The docking experiments revealed that I?B? masked the nuclear localization signal (NLS) of the p50/p65 subunits, thereby preventing its translocation into the nucleus. For the Bcl-3- and I?BNS-p50/p50 complexes, the results show that Bcl-3 mediated transcription through its transactivation domain (TAD) while I?BNS inhibited transcription due to its lack of a TAD, which is consistent with biochemical studies. Additionally, the numbers of identified flexible residues were equal in number among all I?B proteins, although they were not conserved. This could be the primary reason for their binding partner specificities.
SUBMITTER: Manavalan B
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3009747 | biostudies-literature | 2010
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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