Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

A Keith Dunker

Publications and source records attributed to A Keith Dunker.

43 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed2002

Evolutionary rate heterogeneity in proteins with long disordered regions.

The dominant view in protein science is that a three-dimensional (3-D) structure is a prerequisite for protein function. In contrast to this dominant view, there are many counterexample proteins that fail to fold into a 3-D structure, or that have local regions that fail to fold, and yet carry out function. Protein without fixed 3-D structure is called intrinsically disordered. Motivated by anecdotal accounts of higher rates of sequence evolution in disordered protein than in ordered protein we are exploring the molecular evolution of disordered proteins. To test whether disordered protein evolves more rapidly than ordered protein, pairwise genetic distances were compared between the ordered and the disordered regions of 26 protein families having at least one member with a structurally characterized region of disorder of 30 or more consecutive residues. For five families, there were no significant differences in pairwise genetic distances between ordered and disordered sequences. The disordered region evolved significantly more rapidly than the ordered region for 19 of the 26 families. The functions of these disordered regions are diverse, including binding sites for protein, DNA, or RNA and also including flexible linkers. The functions of some of these regions are unknown. The disordered regions evolved significantly more slowly than the ordered regions for the two remaining families. The functions of these more slowly evolving disordered regions include sites for DNA binding. More work is needed to understand the underlying causes of the variability in the evolutionary rates of intrinsically ordered and disordered protein.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2002

Improving sequence alignments for intrinsically disordered proteins.

Here we analyze sequence alignments for intrinsically disordered proteins. For 55 disordered protein families we measure the performance of different scoring matrices and propose one adjusted to disordered regions. An iterative algorithm of realigning sequences and recalculating matrices is designed and tested. For each matrix we also test a wide range of gap penalties. Results show an improvement in the ability to detect and discriminate related disordered proteins whose average sequence identity with the other family members is below 50%.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Showing your ID: intrinsic disorder as an ID for recognition, regulation and cell signaling.

Regulation, recognition and cell signaling involve the coordinated actions of many players. To achieve this coordination, each participant must have a valid identification (ID) that is easily recognized by the others. For proteins, these IDs are often within intrinsically disordered (also ID) regions. The functions of a set of well-characterized ID regions from a diversity of proteins are presented herein to support this view. These examples include both more recently described signaling proteins, such as p53, alpha-synuclein, HMGA, the Rieske protein, estrogen receptor alpha, chaperones, GCN4, Arf, Hdm2, FlgM, measles virus nucleoprotein, RNase E, glycogen synthase kinase 3beta, p21(Waf1/Cip1/Sdi1), caldesmon, calmodulin, BRCA1 and several other intriguing proteins, as well as historical prototypes for signaling, regulation, control and molecular recognition, such as the lac repressor, the voltage gated potassium channel, RNA polymerase and the S15 peptide associating with the RNA polymerase S-protein. The frequent occurrence and the common use of ID regions in important protein functions raise the possibility that the relationship between amino acid sequence, disordered ensemble and function might be the dominant paradigm for the molecular recognition that serves as the basis for signaling and regulation by protein molecules.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Uncovering the unfoldome: enriching cell extracts for unstructured proteins by acid treatment.

A method to enrich cell extracts in totally unfolded proteins was investigated. A literature search revealed that 14 of 29 proteins isolated by their failure to precipitate during perchloric acid (PCA) or trichloroacetic acid (TCA) treatment where also shown experimentally to be totally disordered. A near 100 000-fold reduction in yield was observed after 5% or 9% PCA treatment of total soluble E. coli protein. Despite this huge reduction, 158 and 142 spots were observed from the 5% and the 9% treated samples, respectively, on silver-stained 2-D SDS-PAGE gels loaded with 10 microg of protein. Treatment with 1% PCA was less selective with more visible spots and a greater than 3-fold higher yield. A substantial yield of unprecipitated protein was obtained after 3% TCA treatment, suggesting that the common use of TCA precipitation prior to 2-D gel analysis may result in loss of unstructured protein due to their failure to precipitate. Our preliminary analysis suggests that treating total protein extracts with 3-5% PCA and determining the identities of soluble proteins could be the starting point for uncovering unfoldomes (the complement of unstructured proteins in a given proteome). The 100 000-fold reduction in yield and concomitant reduction in number of proteins achieved by 5% PCA treatment produced a fraction suitable for analysis in its entirety using standard proteomic techniques. In this way, large numbers of totally unstructured proteins could be identified with minimal effort.

Bacterial Proteins↗