Protein and Peptide Letters - Volume 18, Issue 2, 2011

Molecular chaperones are a class of proteins that aid in the folding of other proteins. They are also referred to as heat-shock proteins (HSP) because they were first described as proteins induced during thermal stress. Although the term molecular chaperone was used first by Laskey and co-workers (Nature 275, 416-420, 1978) to describe the function of nucleoplasmin, a protein that promotes the correct oligomerization Read More

Cells require a protein quality control (PQC) system to obtain a correct balance between folding and the degradation of incorrectly folded or misfolded proteins. This system maintains protein homeostasis and is essential for life. Key components of the PQC are molecular chaperones, which compose a ubiquitous class of proteins that mediate protein quality control by aiding in both the correct folding of proteins and th Read More

The great diversity of structural conformations available to proteins allows this class of molecules to carry out the vast majority of biochemical functions in the cell. In order to function adequately, proteins must be synthesized, folded/assembled and degraded with great temporal and spatial accuracy. Precise coordination of multiple processes, including ribosome assembly and movement along mRNA, charging and recycling Read More

The great majority of mitochondrial proteins are synthesized by cytosolic ribosomes and then imported into the organelle post-translationally. The translocase of the outer membrane (TOM) is a proteinaceous machinery that contains surface receptors for preprotein recognition and also serves as the main entry gateway into mitochondria. Mitochondrial targeting requires various cytosolic factors, in particular the molecular chap Read More

The Hsp70 family is one of the most important and conserved molecular chaperone families. It is well documented that Hsp70 family members assist many cellular processes involving protein quality control, as follows: protein folding, transport through membranes, protein degradation, escape from aggregation, intracellular signaling, among several others. The Hsp70 proteins act as a cellular pivot capable of receiving a Read More

Certain kinetoplastid (Leishmania spp. and Trypanosoma cruzi) and apicomplexan parasites (Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii) are capable of invading human cells as part of their pathology. These parasites appear to have evolved a relatively expanded or diverse complement of genes encoding molecular chaperones. The gene families encoding heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) and heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) ch Read More

Many Gram-negative bacteria are able to invade hosts by translocation of effectors directly into target cells in processes usually mediated by two very complex secretion systems (SSs), named type III (T3) and type IV (T4) SSs. These syringe-needle injection devices work with intervention of specialized secretion chaperones that, unlike traditional molecular chaperones, do not assist in protein folding and are not energized by Read More

The present review intends to summarize the, yet preliminary, but very important emerging data underlining the functions exerted by the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+)-dependent deacetylase SIRT1 on protein homeostasis. The main focus of the discussion is the cooperation between SIRT1 and the heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) responsible for activating the transcription of molecular chaperones, the Read More

One of the most important goals in bioinformatics is the ability to predict tertiary structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence. In this paper, new feature groups based on the physical and physicochemical properties of amino acids (size of the amino acids' side chains, predicted secondary structure based on normalized frequency of β-Strands, Turns, and Reverse Turns) are proposed to tackle this task. The proposed feature Read More

Protein palmitoylation is an important and common post-translational lipid modification of proteins and plays a critical role in various cellular processes. Identification of Palmitoylation sites is fundamental to decipher the mechanisms of these biological processes. However, experimental determination of palmitoylation residues without prior knowledge is laborious and costly. Thus computational approaches for prediction Read More

A dimeric 64-kDa lectin was purified from seeds of French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) cultivar number 1. The purification protocol entailed Q-Sepharose, Affi-gel blue gel, Mono S and Superdex 75. The lectin-enriched fraction was adsorbed on Q-Sepharose and Affi-gel blue gel and desorbed using 1M NaCl in the starting buffer. Hemagglutinating activity was adsorbed on Mono S and eluted with a linear 0.3 - 1 M NaCl Read More

Water plays an invaluable role in governing the structure, stability, dynamics, and function of biomolecules, which has also been demonstrated to be critical in mediating biomolecular recognition and association. Accurate determination of the dynamic behavior of water molecules at biological complex interface is important for the understanding of the molecular mechanism of water contributing to the binding between biomole Read More

Cystatins are thiol proteinase inhibitors ubiquitously present in mammalian body and serve various important physiological functions. Aims: To purify and characterize Thiol protease inhibitor from buffalo brain and to compare its properties with respect to tissue and organ difference from other mammalian cystatins. Main methods: Inhibitor has been isolated and purified using alkaline treatment; ammonium sulphate fractionatio Read More