Conformation and Structural Transitions in the EFHands of Calmodulin

Moorthy, Anu K and Murthy, MRN (2001) Conformation and Structural Transitions in the EFHands of Calmodulin. In: Journal of Biomolecular Structure & Dynamics, 19 (1). pp. 47-57.

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Abstract

Calcium plays a key role in cellular signal transduction. Calmodulin, a protein binding four calcium ions, is found in all eukaryotic cells and is believed to activate such processes. The calcium binding loop found in this protein, the canonical EF-hand, is also found in a large number of other proteins such as troponins, parvalbumins, calbindins etc. Earlier analysis of the amino acid sequences of these proteins with a view of understanding evolution of protein families and signaling mechanisms have provided extensive evidence for a characteristic double gene duplication event in this family of proteins. These analyses have been extended here to the three dimensional structures and the biophysical properties of the sequence segments of calmodulin EF-hands. The clear evolutionary history that shows up insequences is not reflected as clearly in the conformation of individual EF-hands, which may be a consequence of the much higher conservation pressure on the structure. Some evidence for the proposed gene duplication is implicit in the apo-holo structural transitions of the EFhands. The profile of amino acid properties that might be significant for calcium binding, however, clearly reflects the gene duplication. These profiles might also provide insightful information on the calcium affinity of the EF-hand motifs and the nature of amino acid residues that constitute them.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Biomolecular Structure & Dynamics
Publisher:	Adenine Press
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Adenine Press
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Molecular Biophysics Unit
Date Deposited:	26 Dec 2008 10:18
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:53
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/16688

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