PubMed Health⌕ Search

PubMed · 9789098

PASSML: combining evolutionary inference and protein secondary structure prediction.

Abstract

MOTIVATION: Evolutionary models of amino acid sequences can be adapted to incorporate structure information; protein structure biologists can use phylogenetic relationships among species to improve prediction accuracy. Results : A computer program called PASSML ('Phylogeny and Secondary Structure using Maximum Likelihood') has been developed to implement an evolutionary model that combines protein secondary structure and amino acid replacement. The model is related to that of Dayhoff and co-workers, but we distinguish eight categories of structural environment: alpha helix, beta sheet, turn and coil, each further classified according to solvent accessibility, i.e. buried or exposed. The model of sequence evolution for each of the eight categories is a Markov process with discrete states in continuous time, and the organization of structure along protein sequences is described by a hidden Markov model. This paper describes the PASSML software and illustrates how it allows both the reconstruction of phylogenies and prediction of secondary structure from aligned amino acid sequences. AVAILABILITY: PASSML 'ANSI C' source code and the example data sets described here are available at http://ng-dec1.gen.cam.ac.uk/hmm/Passml.html and 'downstream' Web pages. CONTACT: P.Lio@gen.cam.ac.uk

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

P Liò, N Goldman, J L Thorne, D T Jones3. 1998. PASSML: combining evolutionary inference and protein secondary structure prediction.. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics%2F14.8.726

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

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

SHP-2 regulates cell growth by controlling the mTOR/S6 kinase 1 pathway.

Cell growth (accumulation in cell mass) ensues through the promotion of macromolecular biosynthesis. S 6 ribosomal kinase 1 (S6K1), which is activated by the mammalian target of rapamycin, is critical for cell growth. The early events that control S6K1 signaling remain unclear. Here we show that SHP-2 suppresses S6K1 activity under conditions of growth factor deprivation. We show that under conditions of growth factor deprivation, S6K1 activity was increased in fibroblasts lacking functional SHP-2 and in cells where knock down of SHP-2 expression was established by small interference RNA. Consistent with these findings, fibroblasts lacking functional SHP-2 exhibited increased cell size as compared with wild type cells. Growth factor deprivation reduces cellular energy, and the energy-sensing 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) negatively regulates S6K1. We found that SHP-2 promoted AMPK activity under conditions of growth factor deprivation (low energy), suggesting that SHP-2 negatively regulates S6K1 via an AMPK-dependent pathway. These results implicate SHP-2 as an early mediator in the S6K1 signaling pathway to limit cell growth in low energy states.

Adenylate Kinase↗

Graded occlusion of perfused rat muscle vasculature decreases insulin action.

Insulin increases capillary recruitment in vivo and impairment of this may contribute to muscle insulin resistance by limiting either insulin or glucose delivery. In the present study, the effect of progressively decreased rat muscle perfusion on insulin action using graded occlusion with MS (microspheres; 15 mum in diameter) was examined. EC (energy charge), PCr/Cr (phosphocreatine/creatine ratio), AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) phosphorylation on Thr(172) (P-AMPKalpha/total AMPK), oxygen uptake, nutritive capacity, 2-deoxyglucose uptake, Akt phosphorylation on Ser(473) (P-Akt/total Akt) and muscle 2-deoxyglucose uptake were determined. Arterial injection of MS (0, 9, 15 and 30 x 10(6) MS/15 g of hindlimb muscle, as a bolus) into the pump-perfused (0.5 ml x min(-1) x g(-1) of wet weight) rat hindlimb led to increased pressure (-0.5+/-0.8, 15.9+/-2.1, 28.7+/-4.6 and 60.3+/-9.4 mmHg respectively) with minimal changes in oxygen uptake. Nutritive capacity was decreased from 10.6+/-1.0 to 3.8+/-0.9 micromol x g(-1) of muscle x h(-1) (P<0.05) with 30 x 10(6) MS. EC was unchanged, but PCr/Cr was decreased dose-dependently to 61% of basal with 30 x 10(6) MS. Insulin-mediated increases in P-Akt/total Akt decreased from 2.15+/-0.35 to 1.41+/-0.23 (P<0.05) and muscle 2-deoxyglucose uptake decreased from 130+/-19 to 80+/-12 microg x min(-1) x g(-1) of dry weight (P<0.05) with 15 x 10(6) MS; basal P-AMPKalpha in the absence of insulin was increased, but basal P-Akt/total Akt and muscle 2-deoxyglucose uptake were unaffected. In conclusion, partial occlusion of the hindlimb muscle has no effect on basal glucose uptake and marginally impacts on oxygen uptake, but markedly impairs insulin delivery to muscle and, thus, insulin-mediated Akt phosphorylation and glucose uptake.

Adenylate Kinase↗

Conformational transitions of adenylate kinase: switching by cracking.

Conformational heterogeneity in proteins is known to often be the key to their function. We present a coarse grained model to explore the interplay between protein structure, folding and function which is applicable to allosteric or non-allosteric proteins. We employ the model to study the detailed mechanism of the reversible conformational transition of Adenylate Kinase (AKE) between the open to the closed conformation, a reaction that is crucial to the protein's catalytic function. We directly observe high strain energy which appears to be correlated with localized unfolding during the functional transition. This work also demonstrates that competing native interactions from the open and closed form can account for the large conformational transitions in AKE. We further characterize the conformational transitions with a new measure Phi(Func), and demonstrate that local unfolding may be due, in part, to competing intra-protein interactions.

Adenylate Kinase↗