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An amino acid code for irregular and mixed protein packing.

ABSTRACT: To advance our understanding of protein tertiary structure, the development of the knob-socket model is completed in an analysis of the packing in irregular coil and turn secondary structure packing as well as between mixed secondary structure. The knob-socket model simplifies packing based on repeated patterns of two motifs: a three-residue socket for packing within secondary (2°) structure and a four-residue knob-socket for tertiary (3°) packing. For coil and turn secondary structure, knob-sockets allow identification of a correlation between amino acid composition and tertiary arrangements in space. Coil contributes almost as much as ?-helices to tertiary packing. In irregular sockets, Gly, Pro, Asp, and Ser are favored, while in irregular knobs, the preference order is Arg, Asp, Pro, Asn, Thr, Leu, and Gly. Cys, His,Met, and Trp are not favored in either. In mixed packing, the knob amino acid preferences are a function of the socket that they are packing into, whereas the amino acid composition of the sockets does not depend on the secondary structure of the knob. A unique motif of a coil knob with an XYZ ?-sheet socket may potentially function to inhibit ?-sheet extension. In addition, analysis of the preferred crossing angles for strands within a ?-sheet and mixed ?-helice/?-sheet identifies canonical packing patterns useful in protein design. Lastly, the knob-socket model abstracts the complexity of protein tertiary structure into an intuitive packing surface topology map.

SUBMITTER: Joo H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4715706 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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An amino acid code for irregular and mixed protein packing.

Joo Hyun H Chavan Archana G AG Fraga Keith J KJ Tsai Jerry J

Proteins 20151005 12

To advance our understanding of protein tertiary structure, the development of the knob-socket model is completed in an analysis of the packing in irregular coil and turn secondary structure packing as well as between mixed secondary structure. The knob-socket model simplifies packing based on repeated patterns of two motifs: a three-residue socket for packing within secondary (2°) structure and a four-residue knob-socket for tertiary (3°) packing. For coil and turn secondary structure, knob-soc ...[more]

PMID: 26370334

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Project description:There is evidence that the genetic code was established prior to the existence of proteins, when metabolism was powered by ribozymes. Also, early proto-organisms had to rely on simple anaerobic bioenergetic processes. In this work I propose that amino acid fermentation powered metabolism in the RNA world, and that this was facilitated by proto-adapters, the precursors of the tRNAs. Amino acids were used as carbon sources rather than as catalytic or structural elements. In modern bacteria, amino acid fermentation is known as the Stickland reaction. This pathway involves two amino acids: the first undergoes oxidative deamination, and the second acts as an electron acceptor through reductive deamination. This redox reaction results in two keto acids that are employed to synthesise ATP via substrate-level phosphorylation. The Stickland reaction is the basic bioenergetic pathway of some bacteria of the genus Clostridium. Two other facts support Stickland fermentation in the RNA world. First, several Stickland amino acid pairs are synthesised in abiotic amino acid synthesis. This suggests that amino acids that could be used as an energy substrate were freely available. Second, anticodons that have complementary sequences often correspond to amino acids that form Stickland pairs. The main hypothesis of this paper is that pairs of complementary proto-adapters were assigned to Stickland amino acids pairs. There are signatures of this hypothesis in the genetic code. Furthermore, it is argued that the proto-adapters formed double strands that brought amino acid pairs into proximity to facilitate their mutual redox reaction, structurally constraining the anticodon pairs that are assigned to these amino acid pairs. Significance tests which randomise the code are performed to study the extent of the variability of the energetic (ATP) yield. Random assignments can lead to a substantial yield of ATP and maintain enough variability, thus selection can act and refine the assignments into a proto-code that optimises the energetic yield. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to evaluate the establishment of these simple proto-codes, based on amino acid substitutions and codon swapping. In all cases, donor amino acids are assigned to anticodons composed of U+G, and have low redundancy (1-2 codons), whereas acceptor amino acids are assigned to the the remaining codons. These bioenergetic and structural constraints allow for a metabolic role for amino acids before their co-option as catalyst cofactors.

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An amino acid code for irregular and mixed protein packing.

Publications

An amino acid code for irregular and mixed protein packing.

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