Species specific amino acid sequence-protein local structure relationships: An analysis in the light of a structural alphabet

Abstract

Protein structure analysis and prediction methods are based on non-redundant data extracted from the available protein structures, regardless of the species from which the protein originates. Hence, these datasets represent the global knowledge on protein folds, which constitutes a generic distribution of amino acid sequence-protein structure (AAS-PS) relationships. In this study, we try to elucidate whether the AAS-PS relationship could possess specificities depending on the specie.For this purpose, we have chosen three different species: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Plasmodium falciparum and Arabidopsis thaliana. We analyzed the AAS-PS behaviors of the proteins from these three species and compared it to the "expected" distribution of a classical non-redundant databank. With the classical secondary structure description, only slight differences in amino acid preferences could be observed. With a more precise description of local protein structures (Protein Blocks), significant changes could be highlighted.S. cerevisiae's AAS-PS relationship is close to the general distribution, while striking differences are observed in the case of A. thaliana. P. falciparum is the most distant one.This study presents some interesting view-points on AAS-PS relationship. Certain species exhibit unique preferences for amino acids to be associated with protein local structural elements. Thus, AAS-PS relationships are species dependent. These results can give useful insights for improving prediction methodologies which take the species specific information into account. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.