A proposed model for the PEX5-peroxisomal targeting signal-1 recognition complex
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Updated: Oct 17, 2026

Monitoring Stub1-Mediated Pexophagy
Published on: May 12, 2023
G J Gatto1, B V Geisbrecht, S J Gould
1Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Abstract:
The three-dimensional structure of a protein can greatly illuminate the relationship between its sequence and its function. However, in the absence of a set of experimentally derived coordinates, one often seeks a model of the protein of interest to guide future study. We describe the combined utilization of orthologous sequence information along with knowledge of the related structural fold to model the interaction between PEX5 and its ligand, the peroxisomal targeting signal-1 (PTS1). With this model, we are able to identify residues within PEX5 that appear to be important for peptide recognition, as well as explain some of the sequence requirements of the PTS1. Specifically, our model highlights four asparagine residues as important for ligand backbone atom recognition, which, along with previously observed examples, suggests this as a general mechanism for the binding of extended polypeptides.
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