Protein Functions
Protein Functions
Find it
Find it
Understand it
Characterize it
Understand its function(s) – these follow a power
law at the fold level – some folds are promiscuous
(many functions) others are solitary or of unknown
function
Question: is structure the answer to functional
modeling?
Structural Genomics
/
Structure Prediction
STEP 3. WHAT CAN BE OBTAINED FROM
STRUCTURE WHEN YOU HAVE IT?
http://www.genome.jp/kegg/
WHY MODEL PROTEIN
FUNCTION
Catalysis (enzymes)
Binding – transport (active/passive)
Protein-DNA/RNA binding (e.g. histones, transcription factors)
Protein-protein interactions Protein-fatty acid binding (e.g. apolipoproteins)
Protein – small molecules (drug interaction, structure decoding)
Many experiments have shown that proteins can spontaneously fold from
an unfolded state to their folded native state.
This proves that the amino acid sequence contains enough information to
specify tertiary structure. Bonds within the peptide backbone seek out
different possible conformations as the final tertiary structure is achieved.
Homo-oligomers
Macromolecular complexes constituted by only
one type of protein subunit
Several enzymes, carrier proteins and
transcriptional regulatory factors carry out their
functions as homo-oligomers.
Covalent :
Strongest association - disulphide bonds or electron sharing
- Post translational modifications
Non-covalent :
Established during transient interactions by the
combination of weaker bonds
Hydrogen bonds,
Ionic interactions,
Van der Waals forces
Hydrophobic bonds
ON THE BASIS OF THEIR DURATION OF
INTERACTION
Transient Interactions :
Interactions that last a short period of time
reversible manner
E.g., G protein-coupled receptors only transiently bind to G proteins when they are
activated by extracellular ligands
Stable Interactions:
Proteins - interact for a long time, taking part of permanent
complexes as subunits
-carry out Functional or Structural roles
PROTEIN DOMAINS
• http://bind.ca
• A free, open-source database for archiving and exchanging
molecular assembly information.
• The database contains
- Interactions
- Molecular complexes
- Pathways
AN IMPORTANT APPLICATION OF PPI
Drug Designing
Docking
MAJOR APPLICATION: DESIGNING DRUGS