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Updated: Jul 30, 2025

Demonstration of Heterologous Complexes formed by Golgi-Resident Type III Membrane Proteins using Split Luciferase Complementation Assay
Published on: September 10, 2020
Functional insight into Cordyceps militaris sugar transporters by structure modeling, network analysis and allosteric
Xin Liu1,2, Hanyang Zhang1, Ziyun Zhou1,3
1Center for Systems Biology, Department of Bioinformatics, School of Biology and Basic Medical Sciences, Suzhou Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. huguang@suda.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Insights into the structures, functions and dynamics of Cordyceps militaris (C. militaris) sugar transporters are necessary for understanding their versatile metabolic capability for fungal growth. The sequence-function relationship study of 85 C. militaris sugar transporters showed that there is a gap between phylogenetic-based subfamily classification and their functions. Beyond protein sequences, structural modeling and principal component analysis of the structural ensemble revealed the different folds of the Car and Org subfamilies. Performing channel detection and network analysis found that the Alp and Hex subfamilies can be specifically distinguished from others by the betweenness of channel residues. Signature dynamics analysis further suggested that the Hex subfamily demonstrates different dynamics, with high flexibility at the H1 region in TM11. Furthermore, the H1 region as an allosteric site was examined by network parameter calculations that guided allosteric pathways between this region and the channel cavity. Together with gene expression data of C. militaris, e.g., Hex06741 in the Hex subfamily, it was promisingly expressed when sugar utilization was altered. This work demonstrates an in silico framework for investigating C. militaris sugar transporters as an example case study of the allosteric activity of the Hex subfamily and can facilitate sugar transporter engineering design that can further optimize the preferable sugar utilization and fermentation process of C. militaris.
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