Common prevalence of alanine and glycine in mobile reactive centre loops of serpins and viral fusion peptides: Do prions possess a fusion peptide?
- 1 April 1994
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design
- Vol. 8 (2), 175-191
- https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00119866
Abstract
Serpin reactive centre loops and fusion peptides released by proteolytic cleavage are particularly mobile. Their amino acid compositions reveal a common and unusual abundance of alanine, accompanied by high levels of glycine. These two small residues, which are not simultaneously abundant in stable helices (standard or transmembrane), probably play an important role in mobility. Threonine and valine (also relatively small amino acids) are also abundant in these two kinds of peptides. Moreover, the known 3D structures of an uncleaved serpin reactive centre and a fusion peptide are strikingly similar. Such sequences possess many small residues and are found in several signal peptides and in PrP, a protein associated with spongi-form encephalopathies and resembling virus envelope proteins. These properties may be related to the infection mechanisms of these diseases.Keywords
This publication has 45 references indexed in Scilit:
- Structure of porin refined at 1.8 Å resolutionJournal of Molecular Biology, 1992
- Serpins: Mobile conformations in a family of proteinase inhibitorsCurrent Opinion in Structural Biology, 1992
- Selection of representative protein data setsProtein Science, 1992
- A 'unified theory' of prion propagationNature, 1991
- Side-chain clusters in protein structures and their role in protein foldingJournal of Molecular Biology, 1991
- An investigation of oligopeptides linking domains in protein tertiary structures and possible candidates for general gene fusionJournal of Molecular Biology, 1990
- MANOSK: A graphics program for analyzing and modeling molecular structure and functionsJournal of Molecular Graphics, 1988
- Structure of the haemagglutinin membrane glycoprotein of influenza virus at 3 Å resolutionNature, 1981
- The protein data bank: A computer-based archival file for macromolecular structuresJournal of Molecular Biology, 1977
- The stereochemical code and the logic of a protein moleculeQuarterly Reviews of Biophysics, 1969