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Backbone flexibility controls the activity and specificity of a protein-protein interface – specificity in snake venom metalloproteases (SVMPs)
Journal of Cheminformatics volume 3, Article number: O22 (2011)
Protein-Protein interfaces have crucial functions in many biological processes [1]. The large interaction areas of such interfaces show complex interaction motifs. Even more challenging is the understanding of (multi-)specificity in protein-protein binding. Many proteins can bind several partners to mediate their function [2].
A perfect paradigm to study such multi-specific protein-protein interfaces are snake venom metalloproteases (SVMPs) [3]. Inherently, they bind to a variety of basement membrane proteins of capillaries, hydrolyze them, and induce profuse bleeding. However, despite having a high sequence homology, some SVMPs show a strong hemorrhagic activity, while others are (almost) inactive [4].
Our results indicate that the activity to induce hemorrhage, and thus the capability to bind the potential reaction partners, is related to the backbone flexibility in a certain surface region[4]. A subtle interplay between flexibility and rigidity of two loops seems to be the prerequisite for the proteins to carry out their damaging function. Presumably, a significant alteration in the backbone dynamics makes the difference between SVMPs that induce hemorrhage and the inactive ones.
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Wallnoefer HG, Lingott T, Gutiérrez JM, Merfort I, Liedl KR: Backbone Flexibility Controls the Activity and Specificity of a Protein - Protein Interface: Specificity in Snake Venom Metalloproteases. J Am Chem Soc. 2010, 132: 10330-10337. 10.1021/ja909908y.
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Wallnoefer, H.G., Lingott, T., Gutiérrez, J.M. et al. Backbone flexibility controls the activity and specificity of a protein-protein interface – specificity in snake venom metalloproteases (SVMPs). J Cheminform 3 (Suppl 1), O22 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1186/1758-2946-3-S1-O22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1758-2946-3-S1-O22
Keywords
- Basement Membrane
- Significant Alteration
- Surface Region
- Damage Function
- Potential Reaction