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Occurrence of beta-turn potentials around nuclear and nucleolar localization sequences
1Musashigaoka College, Saitama, Japan.
Journal of Protein Chemistry
|October 1, 1991
Summary
Protein turn structures are biologically significant. This study used Chou-Fasman prediction to identify turn potentials in nuclear and nucleolar localization signals, finding most contain them.
Area of Science:
- Biochemistry
- Molecular Biology
- Structural Biology
Background:
- Turn structures in proteins are of significant biological interest.
- Nuclear localization signals (NLS) and nucleolar localization signals (NoLS) mediate protein transport.
- Experimental structural data for NLS and NoLS are limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the presence of turn potentials within known NLS and NoLS using computational methods.
- To assess the predictive capability of the Chou-Fasman method for these specific protein sequences.
- To highlight the utility of conformational prediction in understanding NLS/NoLS structure.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Chou-Fasman protein conformational prediction method.
- Analyzed sequences of reported NLS and NoLS for predicted beta-turn propensity.
- Compared predictions with existing literature and experimental data where available.
Main Results:
- The Chou-Fasman method predicted turn potentials in 17 NLS and one NoLS.
- Two NLS (human lamin A and c-myc peptide M1) were not predicted to contain beta-turns.
- This suggests potential structural heterogeneity among NLS/NoLS.
Conclusions:
- Conformational prediction methods, like Chou-Fasman, can provide insights into the structural characteristics of NLS and NoLS.
- The findings suggest that not all NLS/NoLS may adopt turn structures.
- Further structural elucidation of these signals is warranted.