MIT Biologists Glean New Insight Into Repetitive Protein Sequences
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2022 2:43 am
MIT Biologists Glean New Insight Into Repetitive Protein Sequences
https://scitechdaily.com/mit-biologists ... sequences/
Computational analysis reveals that many repetitive sequences are shared across proteins and are similar in species from bacteria to humans.
Approximately 70 percent of all human proteins include at least one sequence consisting of a single amino acid repeated many times, with a few other amino acids sprinkled in. These “low-complexity regions” (LCRs) are also found in the proteins of most other organisms.
Although the proteins that contain these sequences have many different functions, MIT biologists have now come up with a way to identify and analyze them as a unified group. Their technique allows them to examine similarities and differences between LCRs from different species, and helps them to resolve the functions of these sequences and the proteins in which they are found.
Using their technique, the scientists analyzed all of the proteins found in eight different species, from bacteria to humans. They discovered that while LCRs can vary between proteins and species, they often share a similar role — helping the protein in which they’re found to join a larger-scale assembly such as the nucleolus, an organelle found in nearly all human cells.
“Instead of looking at specific LCRs and their functions, which might seem separate because they’re involved in different processes, our broader approach allows us to see similarities between their properties, suggesting that maybe the functions of LCRs aren’t so disparate after all,” says Byron Lee, an MIT graduate student.
https://scitechdaily.com/mit-biologists ... sequences/
Computational analysis reveals that many repetitive sequences are shared across proteins and are similar in species from bacteria to humans.
Approximately 70 percent of all human proteins include at least one sequence consisting of a single amino acid repeated many times, with a few other amino acids sprinkled in. These “low-complexity regions” (LCRs) are also found in the proteins of most other organisms.
Although the proteins that contain these sequences have many different functions, MIT biologists have now come up with a way to identify and analyze them as a unified group. Their technique allows them to examine similarities and differences between LCRs from different species, and helps them to resolve the functions of these sequences and the proteins in which they are found.
Using their technique, the scientists analyzed all of the proteins found in eight different species, from bacteria to humans. They discovered that while LCRs can vary between proteins and species, they often share a similar role — helping the protein in which they’re found to join a larger-scale assembly such as the nucleolus, an organelle found in nearly all human cells.
“Instead of looking at specific LCRs and their functions, which might seem separate because they’re involved in different processes, our broader approach allows us to see similarities between their properties, suggesting that maybe the functions of LCRs aren’t so disparate after all,” says Byron Lee, an MIT graduate student.