Identification of divergent WH2 motifs by HMM-HMM alignments

Please always quote using this URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-126413
  • Background The actin cytoskeleton is a hallmark of eukaryotic cells. Its regulation as well as its interaction with other proteins is carefully orchestrated by actin interaction domains. One of the key players is the WH2 motif, which enables binding to actin monomers and filaments and is involved in the regulation of actin nucleation. Contrasting conserved domains, the identification of this motif in protein sequences is challenging, as it is short and poorly conserved. Findings To identify divergent members, we combinedBackground The actin cytoskeleton is a hallmark of eukaryotic cells. Its regulation as well as its interaction with other proteins is carefully orchestrated by actin interaction domains. One of the key players is the WH2 motif, which enables binding to actin monomers and filaments and is involved in the regulation of actin nucleation. Contrasting conserved domains, the identification of this motif in protein sequences is challenging, as it is short and poorly conserved. Findings To identify divergent members, we combined Hidden-Markov-Model (HMM) to HMM alignments with orthology predictions. Thereby, we identified nearly 500 proteins containing so far not annotated WH2 motifs. This included shootin-1, an actin binding protein involved in neuron polarization. Among others, WH2 motifs of ‘proximal to raf’ (ptr)-orthologs, which are described in the literature, but not annotated in genome databases, were identified. Conclusion In summary, we increased the number of WH2 motif containing proteins substantially. This identification of candidate regions for actin interaction could steer their experimental characterization. Furthermore, the approach outlined here can easily be adapted to the identification of divergent members of further domain families.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author: Clemens Leonard Weiß, Jörg Schultz
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-126413
Document Type:Journal article
Faculties:Fakultät für Biologie / Theodor-Boveri-Institut für Biowissenschaften
Language:English
Parent Title (English):BMC Research Notes
Year of Completion:2015
Volume:8
Issue:18
Source:BMC Research Notes (2015) 8:18. DOI 10.1186/s13104-015-0981-7
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-015-0981-7
Dewey Decimal Classification:0 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke / 00 Informatik, Wissen, Systeme / 004 Datenverarbeitung; Informatik
5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie
Tag:HHblits; WH2 domain; actin nucleation; shootin-1; spire
Release Date:2016/02/01
Collections:Open-Access-Publikationsfonds / Förderzeitraum 2015
Licence (German):License LogoCC BY: Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung