PubMed Health⌕ Search

PubMed · 11875032

Accounting for human polymorphisms predicted to affect protein function.

Abstract

A major interest in human genetics is to determine whether a nonsynonymous single-base nucleotide polymorphism (nsSNP) in a gene affects its protein product and, consequently, impacts the carrier's health. We used the SIFT (Sorting Intolerant From Tolerant) program to predict that 25% of 3084 nsSNPs from dbSNP, a public SNP database, would affect protein function. Some of the nsSNPs predicted to affect function were variants known to be associated with disease. Others were artifacts of SNP discovery. Two reports have indicated that there are thousands of damaging nsSNPs in an individual's human genome; we find the number is likely to be much lower.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Pauline C Ng, Steven Henikoff. 2002. Accounting for human polymorphisms predicted to affect protein function.. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.212802

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

GAMMA: gap-aware motif mining under incomplete labeling with applications to MHC motifs.

MOTIVATION: Sequence motif identification is crucial for understanding molecular recognition, particularly in immune responses involving peptide binding to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) Class I molecules for antigen presentation to T cells. Traditionally, MHC Class I binding motifs are assumed to be contiguous and span nine amino acids. However, structural evidence suggests that binding may involve nonadjacent residues, challenging the assumptions of existing methods. RESULTS: In this study, we propose Gap-Aware Motif Mining Algorithm (GAMMA), a probabilistic framework designed to identify noncontiguous motifs under conditions of incomplete labeling. GAMMA employs Bayesian inference with Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling to jointly estimate motif parameters, binding locations, and the relative spacing between binding positions. Through extensive simulations and real-world applications to MHC Class I peptide datasets, GAMMA outperforms existing motif discovery tools such as GLAM2 in accurately localizing binding residues and identifying the underlying motifs. Notably, our results suggest that the true number of binding residues may be eight, fewer than the commonly assumed nine. In addition, for longer peptides, the model captures increased flexibility in the central region, consistent with structural observations that peptides may bulge in the middle. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The raw data and the source codes are available on GitHub (https://github.com/RanLIUaca/GAMMAmotif).

Amino Acid Motifs↗

Signalling thresholds and negative B-cell selection in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

B cells are selected for an intermediate level of B-cell antigen receptor (BCR) signalling strength: attenuation below minimum (for example, non-functional BCR) or hyperactivation above maximum (for example, self-reactive BCR) thresholds of signalling strength causes negative selection. In ∼25% of cases, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) cells carry the oncogenic BCR-ABL1 tyrosine kinase (Philadelphia chromosome positive), which mimics constitutively active pre-BCR signalling. Current therapeutic approaches are largely focused on the development of more potent tyrosine kinase inhibitors to suppress oncogenic signalling below a minimum threshold for survival. We tested the hypothesis that targeted hyperactivation--above a maximum threshold--will engage a deletional checkpoint for removal of self-reactive B cells and selectively kill ALL cells. Here we find, by testing various components of proximal pre-BCR signalling in mouse BCR-ABL1 cells, that an incremental increase of Syk tyrosine kinase activity was required and sufficient to induce cell death. Hyperactive Syk was functionally equivalent to acute activation of a self-reactive BCR on ALL cells. Despite oncogenic transformation, this basic mechanism of negative selection was still functional in ALL cells. Unlike normal pre-B cells, patient-derived ALL cells express the inhibitory receptors PECAM1, CD300A and LAIR1 at high levels. Genetic studies revealed that Pecam1, Cd300a and Lair1 are critical to calibrate oncogenic signalling strength through recruitment of the inhibitory phosphatases Ptpn6 (ref. 7) and Inpp5d (ref. 8). Using a novel small-molecule inhibitor of INPP5D (also known as SHIP1), we demonstrated that pharmacological hyperactivation of SYK and engagement of negative B-cell selection represents a promising new strategy to overcome drug resistance in human ALL.

Amino Acid Motifs↗

Novel mesenchymal and haematopoietic cell isoforms of the SHP-2 docking receptor, PZR: identification, molecular cloning and effects on cell migration.

SHP-2 (Src homology phosphatase type-2) is essential for haematopoietic skeletal and vascular development. Thus the identification of its binding partners is critically important. In the present study, we describe a unique monoclonal antibody, WM78, which interacts with PZR, a SHP-2 binding partner. Furthermore, we identify two novel isoforms of PZR, PZRa and PZRb, derived by differential splicing from a single gene transcription unit on human chromosome 1q24. All are type 1 transmembrane glycoproteins with identical extracellular and transmembrane domains, but differ in their cytoplasmic tails. The PZR intracellular domain contains two SHP-2 binding immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motifs (VIY(246)AQL and VVY(263)ADI) which are not present in PZRa and PZRb. Using the WM78 monoclonal antibody, which recognizes the common extracellular domain of the PZR isoforms, we demonstrate that the PZR molecules are expressed on mesenchymal and haematopoietic cells, being present on the majority of CD34(+)CD38(+) and early clonogenic progenitors, and at lower levels on CD34(+)CD38(-) cells and the hierarchically more primitive pre-colony forming units. Interestingly, we show by reverse transcriptase-PCR that the PZR isoforms are differentially expressed in haematopoietic, endothelial and mesenchymal cells. Both PZR and PZRb are present in CD133(+) precursors and endothelial cells, PZRb predominates in mesenchymal and committed myelomonocytic progenitor cells, and all three isoforms occur in erythroid precursor cell lines. Importantly, using SHP-2 mutant (Delta 46-110) and SHP-2 rescue of embryonic fibroblasts stably expressing the PZR isoforms, we demonstrate for the first time that PZR, but not PZRa or PZRb, facilitates fibronectin- dependent migration of cells expressing a competent SHP-2 molecule. These observations will be instrumental in determining the mechanisms whereby PZR isoforms regulate cell motility.

Amino Acid Motifs↗