In-silico characterization of Formin Binding Protein 4 Family of proteins

Members of the Formin Binding Protein 4 Family or the FNBP4 were indirectly reported to be associated with many of the biological processes. These proteins possess two WW domains. So far there are practically no reports regarding the characterization and classification of the protein by any means. Keeping in mind the importance of the proteins from this FNBP4 family, we have tried an in silico approach to come up with a comprehensive analysis of the proteins. We have analyzed the proteins by considering their sequence conservation, their phylogenetic distributions among the different organisms. We have also investigated the functional properties of the WW domains in the proteins. Finally, we have made an attempt to elucidate the structural details of the domains and predicted the possible modes of their interactions. Our findings show that FNBP4 is eukaryotic in its distribution and follows a trend of evolution where animal and plant homologues have evolved in an independent manner. While the WW domain is the only common motif present across the FNBP4 family of proteins, there are different classes (mainly two) of WW domains that are found among different FNBP4 proteins. Structure function predictions indicate a possible role of FNBP4 in either protein stabilization control or transcript processing. Our study on FNBP4 may therefore open up new avenues to generate new interest in this highly important but largely unexplored class of proteins. Future studies with proteins from this family may answer many important questions of protein-protein interactions in different biologically important processes.