Predicting the Structure of Membrane Proteins
Author Information
Author(s): Daniele Casciari, Marco Seeber, Francesco Fanelli
Primary Institution: Department of Chemistry, Dulbecco Telethon Institute (DTI), University of Modena e Reggio Emilia
Hypothesis
Can we effectively predict the supramolecular organization of integral transmembrane proteins starting from the monomer?
Conclusion
The study demonstrates an effective computational protocol for predicting the quaternary structure of integral membrane proteins.
Supporting Evidence
- The approach led to native-like quaternary structures with Cα-RMSDs lower than 2.5 Å from the native oligomer.
- Predictions were validated on ten homo-oligomeric membrane proteins with known quaternary structure.
- The method does not require prior knowledge of the oligomerization status of the protein.
Takeaway
This study shows a way to guess how proteins that span cell membranes stick together, starting from just one piece of the protein.
Methodology
The approach involves rigid-body docking, membrane topology filtering, and cluster analysis to predict the quaternary structure of homo-oligomeric integral membrane proteins.
Limitations
The method may not be applicable to non-cyclic oligomers with higher orders due to lack of high-resolution structures.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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