Abstract:
Currently, time-consuming serial in vitro experimentation involving immunocytochemistry or radiolabeled materials is required to identify which of the numerous Rab-GTPases (Rab) and Rab-GTPase activating proteins (RabGAP) are capable of functional interactions. These interactions are essential for numerous cellular functions, and in silico methods of reducing in vitro trial and error would accelerate the pace of research in cell biology. We have utilized a combination of three-dimensional protein modeling and protein bioinformatics to identify domains present in Rab proteins that are predictive of their functional interaction with a specific RabGAP. The RabF2 and RabSF1 domains appear to play functional roles in mediating the interaction between Rabs and RabGAPs. Moreover, the RabSF1 domain can be used to make in silico predictions of functional Rab/RabGAP pairs. This method is expected to be a broadly applicable tool for predicting protein-protein interactions where existing crystal structures for homologs of the proteins of interest are available.
摘要:
目前,需要涉及免疫细胞化学或放射性标记材料的耗时的连续体外实验来鉴定多种Rab-GTP酶(Rab)和Rab-GTP酶激活蛋白(RabGAP)中的哪一种能够功能性相互作用。这些相互作用对于许多细胞功能至关重要,减少体外试验和错误的计算机模拟方法将加快细胞生物学研究的步伐。我们已经利用三维蛋白质建模和蛋白质生物信息学的组合来鉴定Rab蛋白中存在的预测其与特定RabGAP的功能相互作用的结构域。RabF2和RabSF1结构域似乎在介导Rabs和RabGAP之间的相互作用中起功能作用。此外,RabSF1结构域可用于进行功能性Rab/RabGAP对的计算机模拟预测。预期该方法是用于预测蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用的广泛适用的工具,其中感兴趣的蛋白质的同源物的现有晶体结构是可用的。