Title
Knotted Vs. Unknotted Proteins: Evidence Of Knot-Promoting Loops
Abstract
Knotted proteins, because of their ability to fold reversibly in the same topologically entangled conformation, are the object of an increasing number of experimental and theoretical studies. The aim of the present investigation is to assess, on the basis of presently available structural data, the extent to which knotted proteins are isolated instances in sequence or structure space, and to use comparative schemes to understand whether specific protein segments can be associated to the occurrence of a knot in the native state. A significant sequence homology is found among a sizeable group of knotted and unknotted proteins. In this family, knotted members occupy a primary sub-branch of the phylogenetic tree and differ from unknotted ones only by additional loop segments. These "knot-promoting'' loops, whose virtual bridging eliminates the knot, are found in various types of knotted proteins. Valuable insight into how knots form, or are encoded, in proteins could be obtained by targeting these regions in future computational studies or excision experiments.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000864
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
Keywords
Field
DocType
nuclear proteins,computational biology,phylogenetic tree,structured data,proteins,phylogeny,rna binding proteins,sequence alignment,protein conformation
Sequence alignment,Phylogenetic tree,Biology,Sequence homology,Native state,Bioinformatics,Genetics,Knot (unit),Protein structure
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
6
7
1553-7358
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
5
0.66
9
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
R Potestio1264.15
Cristian Micheletti2416.08
Henri Orland3283.67