Identification of functionally related enzymes by learning-to-rank methods

Enzyme sequences and structures are routinely used in the biological sciences as queries to search for functionally related enzymes in online databases. To this end, one usually departs from some notion of similarity, comparing two enzymes by looking for correspondences in their sequences, structures or surfaces. For a given query, the search operation results in a ranking of the enzymes in the database, from very similar to dissimilar enzymes, while information about the biological function of annotated database enzymes is ignored. In this work we show that rankings of that kind can be substantially improved by applying kernel-based learning algorithms. This approach enables the detection of statistical dependencies between similarities of the active cleft and the biological function of annotated enzymes. This is in contrast to search-based approaches, which do not take annotated training data into account. Similarity measures based on the active cleft are known to outperform sequence-based or structure-based measures under certain conditions. We consider the Enzyme Commission (EC) classification hierarchy for obtaining annotated enzymes during the training phase. The results of a set of sizeable experiments indicate a consistent and significant improvement for a set of similarity measures that exploit information about small cavities in the surface of enzymes

Structure, kinetic characterization and subcellular localization of the two ribulose 5-phosphate epimerase isoenzymes from Trypanosoma cruzi

The enzyme of the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) ribulose-5-phosphate-epimerase (RPE) is encoded by two genes present in the genome of Trypanosoma cruzi CL Brener clone: TcRPE1 and TcRPE2. Despite high sequence similarity at the amino acid residue level, the recombinant isoenzymes show a strikingly different kinetics. Whereas TcRPE2 follows a typical michaelian behavior, TcRPE1 shows a complex kinetic pattern, displaying a biphasic curve, suggesting the coexistence of -at least-two kinetically different molecular forms. Regarding the subcellular localization in epimastigotes, whereas TcRPE1 is a cytosolic enzyme, TcRPE2 is localized in glycosomes. To our knowledge, TcRPE2 is the first PPP isoenzyme that is exclusively localized in glycosomes. Over-expression of TcRPE1, but not of TcRPE2, significantly reduces the parasite doubling time in vitro, as compared with wild type epimastigotes. Both TcRPEs represent single domain proteins exhibiting the classical α/β TIM-barrel fold, as expected for enzymes with this activity. With regard to the architecture of the active site, all the important amino acid residues for catalysis -with the exception of M58- are also present in both TcRPEs models. The superimposition of the binding pocket of both isoenzyme models shows that they adopt essentially identical positions in the active site with a residue specific RMSD < 2Å, with the sole exception of S12, which displays a large deviation (residue specific RMSD: 11.07 A). Studies on the quaternary arrangement of these isoenzymes reveal that both are present in a mixture of various oligomeric species made up of an even number of molecules, probably pointing to the dimer as their minimal functional unit. This multiplicity of oligomeric species has not been reported for any of the other RPEs studied so far and it might bear implications for the regulation of TcRPEs activity, although further investigation will be necessary to unravel the physiological significance of these structural findings.Fil: Gonzalez, Soledad Natalia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas "Dr. Raúl Alfonsín" (sede Chascomús). Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas "Dr. Raúl Alfonsín" (sede Chascomús); ArgentinaFil: Valsecchi, Wanda Mariela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Maugeri, Dante. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas "Dr. Raúl Alfonsín" (sede Chascomús). Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas "Dr. Raúl Alfonsín" (sede Chascomús); ArgentinaFil: Delfino, Jose Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Cazzulo, Juan Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas "Dr. Raúl Alfonsín" (sede Chascomús). Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas "Dr. Raúl Alfonsín" (sede Chascomús); Argentin

Structural Annotation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Proteome

Of the ∼4000 ORFs identified through the genome sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) H37Rv, experimentally determined structures are available for 312. Since knowledge of protein structures is essential to obtain a high-resolution understanding of the underlying biology, we seek to obtain a structural annotation for the genome, using computational methods. Structural models were obtained and validated for ∼2877 ORFs, covering ∼70% of the genome. Functional annotation of each protein was based on fold-based functional assignments and a novel binding site based ligand association. New algorithms for binding site detection and genome scale binding site comparison at the structural level, recently reported from the laboratory, were utilized. Besides these, the annotation covers detection of various sequence and sub-structural motifs and quaternary structure predictions based on the corresponding templates. The study provides an opportunity to obtain a global perspective of the fold distribution in the genome. The annotation indicates that cellular metabolism can be achieved with only 219 folds. New insights about the folds that predominate in the genome, as well as the fold-combinations that make up multi-domain proteins are also obtained. 1728 binding pockets have been associated with ligands through binding site identification and sub-structure similarity analyses. The resource (http://proline.physics.iisc.ernet.in/Tbstructuralannotation), being one of the first to be based on structure-derived functional annotations at a genome scale, is expected to be useful for better understanding of TB and for application in drug discovery. The reported annotation pipeline is fairly generic and can be applied to other genomes as well

Biochemical, mutational and in silico structural evidence for a functional dimeric Form of the ornithine decarboxylase from entamoeba histolytica

Background Entamoeba histolytica is responsible for causing amoebiasis. Polyamine biosynthesis pathway enzymes are potential drug targets in parasitic protozoan diseases. The first and rate-limiting step of this pathway is catalyzed by ornithine decarboxylase (ODC). ODC enzyme functions as an obligate dimer. However, partially purified ODC from E. histolytica (EhODC) is reported to exist in a pentameric state. Methodology and Results In present study, the oligomeric state of EhODC was re-investigated. The enzyme was over-expressed in Escherichia coli and purified. Pure protein was used for determination of secondary structure content using circular dichroism spectroscopy. The percentages of α-helix, β-sheets and random coils in EhODC were estimated to be 39%, 25% and 36% respectively. Size-exclusion chromatography and mass spectrophotometry analysis revealed that EhODC enzyme exists in dimeric form. Further, computational model of EhODC dimer was generated. The homodimer contains two separate active sites at the dimer interface with Lys57 and Cys334 residues of opposite monomers contributing to each active site. Molecular dynamic simulations were performed and the dimeric structure was found to be very stable with RMSD value ~0.327 nm. To gain insight into the functional role, the interface residues critical for dimerization and active site formation were identified and mutated. Mutation of Lys57Ala or Cys334Ala completely abolished enzyme activity. Interestingly, partial restoration of the enzyme activity was observed when inactive Lys57Ala and Cys334Ala mutants were mixed confirming that the dimer is the active form. Furthermore, Gly361Tyr and Lys157Ala mutations at the dimer interface were found to abolish the enzyme activity and destabilize the dimer. Conclusion To our knowledge, this is the first report which demonstrates that EhODC is functional in the dimeric form. These findings and availability of 3D structure model of EhODC dimer opens up possibilities for alternate enzyme inhibition strategies by targeting the dimer disruption

Protemot: prediction of protein binding sites with automatically extracted geometrical templates

Geometrical analysis of protein tertiary substructures has been an effective approach employed to predict protein binding sites. This article presents the Protemot web server that carries out prediction of protein binding sites based on the structural templates automatically extracted from the crystal structures of protein–ligand complexes in the PDB (Protein Data Bank). The automatic extraction mechanism is essential for creating and maintaining a comprehensive template library that timely accommodates to the new release of PDB as the number of entries continues to grow rapidly. The design of Protemot is also distinctive by the mechanism employed to expedite the analysis process that matches the tertiary substructures on the contour of the query protein with the templates in the library. This expediting mechanism is essential for providing reasonable response time to the user as the number of entries in the template library continues to grow rapidly due to rapid growth of the number of entries in PDB. This article also reports the experiments conducted to evaluate the prediction power delivered by the Protemot web server. Experimental results show that Protemot can deliver a superior prediction power than a web server based on a manually curated template library with insufficient quantity of entries. Availability:

One origin for metallo-β-lactamase activity, or two? An investigation assessing a diverse set of reconstructed ancestral sequences based on a sample of phylogenetic trees

This work was supported by BBSRC (grant BB/F016778/1)Bacteria use metallo-β-lactamase enzymes to hydrolyse lactam rings found in many antibiotics, rendering them ineffective. Metallo-β-lactamase activity is thought to be polyphyletic, having arisen on more than one occasion within a single functionally diverse homologous superfamily. Since discovery of multiple origins of enzymatic activity conferring antibiotic resistance has broad implications for the continued clinical use of antibiotics, we test the hypothesis of polyphyly further; if lactamase function has arisen twice independently, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) is not expected to possess lactam-hydrolysing activity. Two major problems present themselves. Firstly, even with a perfectly known phylogeny, ancestral sequence reconstruction is error prone. Secondly, the phylogeny is not known, and in fact reconstructing a single, unambiguous phylogeny for the superfamily has proven impossible. To obtain a more statistical view of the strength of evidence for or against MRCA lactamase function, we reconstructed a sample of 98 MRCAs of the metallo-β-lactamases, each based on a different tree in a bootstrap sample of reconstructed phylogenies. InterPro sequence signatures and homology modelling were then used to assess our sample of MRCAs for lactamase functionality. Only 5 % of these models conform to our criteria for metallo-β-lactamase functionality, suggesting that the ancestor was unlikely to have been a metallo-β-lactamase. On the other hand, given that ancestral proteins may have had metallo-β-lactamase functionality with variation in sequence and structural properties compared with extant enzymes, our criteria are conservative, estimating a lower bound of evidence for metallo-β-lactamase functionality but not an upper bound.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

A Metallomics Study on Protein function assignment Using ProMOL

Metal ions are an integral part in both the structural and functional stability of enzymes. The function of an enzyme is exhibited through its active site region, which carries out the reaction for that particular protein. When a metal ion is present in an active site, it not only acts as a structural support for the active site but is often plays a critical role in the functional behavior of the protein. An exhaustive screening for proposed metal ion active sites was performed through online resources including Metal MACiE, Metal PDB, the Catalytic site Atlas and Metal Mine. A total of 103 motifs were generated using ProMol, which is a plugin for the molecular visualization software PyMOL. ProMOL was able to identify these motifs in homologous structures. This new library of enzyme active site motifs was then used to suggest functions for three proteins of unknown function that are found in the Protein Data Bank. An additional functionality was added to ProMOL to enable PyMOL to visualize metal ions and prosthetic groups in enzyme active sites and to calculate the interatomic distances of the active site regions