Calciomics:prediction and analysis of EF-hand calcium binding proteins by protein engineering

摘要

Ca2+ plays a pivotal role in the physiology and biochemistry of prokaryotic and mammalian organisms.Viruses also utilize the universal Ca2+ signal to create a specific cellular environment to achieve coexistence with the host,and to propagate.In this paper we first describe our development of a grafting approach to understand site-specific Ca2+ binding properties of EF-hand proteins with a helix-loop-helix Ca2+ binding motif,then summarize our prediction and identification of EF-hand Ca2+ binding sites on a genome-wide scale in bacteria and virus,and next report the application of the grafting approach to probe the metal binding capability of predicted EF-hand motifs within the streptococcal hemoprotein receptor(Shr) of Streptococcus pyrogenes and the nonstructural protein 1(nsP1) of Sindbis virus.When methods such as the grafting approach are developed in conjunction with prediction algorithms we are better able to probe continuous Ca2+-binding sites that have been previously underrepresented due to the limitation of conventional methodology.