Stereochemical studies on cyclic peptides: detailed energy minimization studies on hydrogen bonded all-trans cyclic pentapeptide backbones

Conformational studies have been carried out on hydrogenbonded all-trans cyclic pentapeptide backbone. Application of a combination of grid search and energy minimization on this system has resulted in obtaining 23 minimum energy conformations, which are characterized by unique patterns of hydrogen bonding comprising of β- and γ-turns. A study of the minimum energy conformations vis-a-vis non-planar deviation of the peptide units reveals that non-planarity is an inherent feature in many cases. A study on conformational clustering of minimum energy conformations shows that the minimum energy conformations fall into 6 distinct conformational families. Preliminary comparison with available X-ray structures of cyclic pentapeptide indicates that only some of the minimum energy conformations have formed crystal structures. The set of minimum energy conformations worked out in the present study can form a consolidated database of prototypes for hydrogen bonded backbone and be useful for modelling cyclic pentapeptides both synthetic and bioactive in nature

A procedure for the prediction of temperature-sensitive mutants of a globular protein based solely on the amino acid sequence

Temperature-sensitive (Ts) mutants of a protein are an extremely powerful tool for studying protein function in vivo and in cell culture. We have devised a method to predict those residues in a protein sequence that, when appropriately mutated, are most likely to give rise to a Ts phenotype. Since substitutions of buried hydrophobic residues often result in significant destabilization of the protein, our method predicts those residues in the sequence that are likely to be buried in the protein structure. We also indicate a set of amino acid substitutions, which should be made to generate a Ts mutant of the protein. This method requires only the protein sequence. No structural information or homologous sequence information is required. This method was applied to a test data set of 30 nonhomologous protein structures from the Protein Data Bank. All of the residues predicted by the method to be ≥ 95% buried were, in fact, buried in the protein crystal structure. In contrast, only 50% of all hydrophobic residues in this data set were ≥ 95% buried. This method successfully predicts several known Ts and partially active mutants of T4 lysozyme, λ repressor, gene V protein, and staphylococcal nuclease. This method also correctly predicts residues that form part of the hydrophobic cores of λ repressor, myoglobin, and cytochrome b562

Identification of novel mutations causing familial primary congenital glaucoma in Indian pedigrees

Purpose: To determine the possible molecular genetic defect underlying primary congenital glaucoma (PCG) in India and to identify the pathogenic mutations causing this childhood blindness. Methods: Twenty-two members of five clinically well-characterized consanguineous families were studied. The primary candidate gene CYP1B1 was amplified from genomic DNA, sequenced, and analyzed in control subjects and patients to identify the disease-causing mutations. Results: Five distinct mutations were identified in the coding region of CYP1B1 in eight patients of five PCG-affected families, of which three mutations are novel. These include a novel homozygous frameshift, compound heterozygous missense, and other known mutations. One family showed pseudodominance, whereas others were autosomal recessive with full penetrance. In contrast to all known CYP1B1 mutations, the newly identified frameshift is of special significance, because all functional motifs are missing. This, therefore, represents a rare example of a natural functional CYP1B1 knockout, resulting in a null allele (both patients are blind). Conclusions: The molecular mechanism leading to the development of PCG is unknown. Because CYP1B1 knockout mice did not show a glaucoma phenotype, the functional knockout identified in this study has important implications in elucidating the pathogenesis of PCG. Further understanding of how this molecular defect leads to PCG could influence the development of specific therapies. This is the first study to describe the molecular basis of PCG from the Indian subcontinent and has profound and multiple clinical implications in diagnosis, genetic counseling, genotype-phenotype correlations and prognosis. Hence, it is a step forward in preventing this devastating childhood blindness

SilkSatDb: a microsatellite database of the silkworm, Bombyx mori

The SilkSatDb (silkmoth microsatellite database) (http://www.cdfd.org.in/silksatdb) is a relational database of microsatellites extracted from the available expressed sequence tags and whole genome shotgun sequences of the silkmoth, Bombyx mori. The database has been rendered with a simple and robust web-based search facility, developed using PHP. The SilkSatDb also stores information on primers developed and validated in the laboratory. Users can retrieve information on the microsatellite and the protocols used, along with informative figures and polymorphism status of those microsatellites. In addition, the interface is coupled with Autoprimer, a primer-designing program, using which users can design primers for the loci of interest

AmpliBASE MT: a Mycobacterium tuberculosis diversity knowledgebase

AmpliBASE MT is an online databank of high-resolution DNA fingerprints representing fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism (FAFLP) profiles or amplitypes developed for the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains from 48 different countries. AmpliBASE MT is based on a relational database management system that is hyperlinked to visualize genotyping results in the form of DNA fingerprint images for individual strains. A flexible search system based on systematic comparisons of fragment sizes in base pairs allows inter-laboratory comparison of FAFLP profiles. Besides this, the database also displays previously published data on IS6110 profiles, spoligotypes, MIRU-VNTRs and large sequence polymorphisms along with the FAFLP records that will give the overall comparisons. Being the first of its kind, AmpliBASE MT is expected to be a very helpful tool in strengthening the concept of 'geographic genomics' and will be very helpful to molecular epidemiologists and those interested in diagnostic development for tuberculosis

PSSRdb: a relational database of polymorphic simple sequence repeats extracted from prokaryotic genomes

PSSRdb (Polymorphic Simple Sequence Repeats database) (http://www.cdfd.org.in/PSSRdb/) is a relational database of polymorphic simple sequence repeats (PSSRs) extracted from 85 different species of prokaryotes. Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are the tandem repeats of nucleotide motifs of the sizes 1–6 bp and are highly polymorphic. SSR mutations in and around coding regions affect transcription and translation of genes. Such changes underpin phase variations and antigenic variations seen in some bacteria. Although SSR-mediated phase variation and antigenic variations have been well-studied in some bacteria there seems a lot of other species of prokaryotes yet to be investigated for SSR mediated adaptive and other evolutionary advantages. As a part of our on-going studies on SSR polymorphism in prokaryotes we compared the genome sequences of various strains and isolates available for 85 different species of prokaryotes and extracted a number of SSRs showing length variations and created a relational database called PSSRdb. This database gives useful information such as location of PSSRs in genomes, length variation across genomes, the regions harboring PSSRs, etc. The information provided in this database is very useful for further research and analysis of SSRs in prokaryotes

Energy Minimization Studies on Cyclic Pentapeptide

Energy minimization studies have been carried out on an all-trans cyclic pentapeptide (C P P ). Various grid search minima have been used as starting points to investigate more thoroughly the conformational variety among cyclic pentapeptides. All the minima possess intramolecular H-bonds, characteristic of β- and γ- turns. Thirteen minima have been picked out, which have distinct schemes of hydrogen bonding and are stereochemically good. These results show that the CPP can adopt multiple structures with β- and γ- turns

Bioinformatics Advance Access published March 22, 2007

designed to find tandem repeats of large size motifs as large as 2000 bases and hence large numbers of microsatellites go unidentified by these methods. Many of these programs do not generate alignments between imperfect microsatellites and their expected perfect counterparts and therefore require additional postprocessing in order to study the mutational events in microsatellites. In view of these lacunae and to aid our systematic analysis of imperfect microsatellites, we developed a program called IMEx (Imperfect Microsatellite Extractor) with a number of discoveryfriendly features. IMEx is fast, highly sensitive and is also flexible where user can set the limits for imperfection (thus can be used for both perfect and imperfect microsatellites). The output comprises of a list of microsatellites each of which with information such as its total imperfection content, point mutations, sequence alignment with its perfect counterpart, whether the locus lies in the coding or non-coding region along with corresponding known details. The IMEx program is available in two modes: as a stand-alone program and also in the form of a web-server. The stand-alone as well as web-server are available from the web-sit

A procedure for the prediction of temperature-sensitive mutants of a globular protein based solely on the amino acid sequence

Temperature-sensitive (Ts) mutants of a protein are an extremely powerful tool for studying protein function in vivo and in cell culture. We have devised a method to predict those residues in a protein sequence that, when appropriately mutated, are most likely to give rise to a Ts phenotype. Since substitutions of buried hydrophobic residues often result in significant destabilization of the protein, our method predicts those residues in the sequence that are likely to be buried in the protein structure. We also indicate a set of amino acid substitutions, which should be made to generate a Ts mutant of the protein. This method requires only the protein sequence. No structural information or homologous sequence information is required. This method was applied to a test data set of 30 nonhomologous protein structures from the Protein Data Bank. All of the residues predicted by the method to be ≥95% buried were, in fact, buried in the protein crystal structure. In contrast, only 50% of all hydrophobic residues in this data set were ≥95% buried. This method successfully predicts several known Ts and partially active mutants of T4 lysozyme, λ repressor, gene V protein, and staphylococcal nuclease. This method also correctly predicts residues that form part of the hydrophobic cores of λ repressor, myoglobin, and cytochrome b562