Post-translational protein common

After their synthesis (translation), most proteins go through a maturation process, called post-translational modification that affects their activity. One common post-translational modification of proteins is phosphorylation. Two functional classes of enzymes mediate this reversible process protein kinases add phosphate groups to hydroxyl groups of serine, threonine and tyrosine in their substrate, while protein phosphatases remove phosphate groups. The phosphate-linking... 

In addition to the 20 common amino acids, some modified amino acids are also found in several proteins. These amino acids are normally altered via a process of post-translational modification (PTM) reactions (i.e. modified after protein synthesis is complete). Almost 200 such modified amino acids have been characterized to date. The more common such modifications are discussed separately in Section 2.5. 

The inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatases belong to a family of enzymes that terminate the signals generated by inositol lipid kinases and PLC. To date, two major types of 5-phosphatase have been identified, both of which share a common 5-phosphatase domain of approximately 300 amino acids, with several highly conserved motifs. Type-I enzymes are 43-65 kDa and preferentially hydrolyze 1(1,4,5)P3 and 1(1,3,4,5)P4, with the attendant formation of I(1,4)P2 and 1(1,3,4)P3, but have little or no activity towards membrane-bound phosphoinositides. The pro-totypic form of a type-15-phosphatase is a 43 kDa protein that is post-translationally modified by farnesylation of the carboxyl terminus CAAX motif this modification juxtaposes the enzyme with the membrane. Type-II enzymes are larger (75-160 kDa) and will hydrolyze both water-soluble inositol phosphates and lipids that... 

Proteins can undergo different rounds of palmitoylation and depalmitoylation, either constitutively or as a response to signals." " Here the Ras proteins are the most commonly discussed examples. As described above, all Ras proteins are expressed with the CAAX-box and are subject to post-translational modifications. First, they get farnesylated and after proteolysis and methylation of the C-terminus, H-/N-Ras as well as K-Ras 4A get further palmitoylated at additional cysteines present in their C-terminus. Palmitoylation occurs in the Golgi apparatus and via vesicular transport the farnesylated and palmitoylated proteins are directed to the plasma membrane (PM). The palmitoyl thioester is hydrolyzed at multiple cellular sites and the protein is transported back to the Golgi via a nonvesicular pathway (Scheme 3)." ... 

Post-translational covalent modification of DNA-binding proteins is a mechanism commonly employed among eucaryotes to control the activity of DNA-binding proteins. 

The two common isoforms of the insulin receptor (Fig. 11-11) arise because a 36-nucleotide (12-amino acid) exon is spliced out of the mRNA for the shorter protein. Isoenzymes of aldolase34 and of many other proteins are formed in a similar manner. Frame-shifting during protein synthesis (Chapter 29) and also post-translational alterations may give rise to additional modified forms. They are often synthesized in relatively small amounts but may be essential to the life of the cell. In addition, genetic variants of almost any protein will be found in any population. These often differ in sequence by a single amino acid. 

It is obvious that it is prudent to check the correctness of the amino acid sequence derived from the base sequence of the gene not only at the NHg and COOH termini, which is the common practice, but throughout the entire protein. This would help to uncover any significant errors as well as address the possibility of post-translational modifications. 

Krishna, R., and Wold, F. (1997). Identification of common post-translational modifications. In Protein Structure A Practical Approach (T. Creighton, ed.), 2nd ed., pp. 91-116. Oxford University Press New York. 

When working with purified enzymes, it can be useful to perform a close examination of their phosphorylation states and molecular masses. Mass spectrometry is often useful for this purpose. Post-translational modifications or sequence truncations can potentially alter the compound binding sites available and can also change the structure of potential inhibitory sites. For example, with protein kinases, phosphorylations distal from the ATP binding site can inactivate the kinase whereas phosphorylations near the ATP binding site can activate the catalytic activity. Often, practice does not permit control of such situations because the purified systems are often mixtures and cannot be controlled in the commonly used recombinant expression technologies. 

However, some receptors are constitutively expressed in the nucleus and this type of receptor would not be amenable to a nuclear translocation assay. The activities of nuclear receptors may be dependent upon complex interactions with a number of coregulatory proteins, commonly known as coactivators or corepressors, and modifications by post-translational means. Cell type-specific expression levels of receptors and coregulators may contribute to some, but not all, of the molecular bases for gene and functional selectivity of receptor activity. Therefore selecting a cell line that expresses both the target receptor and the necessary cofactors may be required to design an appropriate assay. 

Proteins and peptides are linear polymers made up of combinations of the 20 most common amino acids linked with each other by peptide bonds. Moreover, the protein produced by the ribosome may undergo covalent modifications, called post-translational modifications, after its incorporation of amino acids. Over 200 such modifications have been detected already [13,14], the most important being glycosylation, the formation of disulfide bridges, phosphorylation, sulfation, hydroxylation, carboxylation and acetylation of the N-terminal acid [15]. The most frequent are listed in Table 8.1 and a more comprehensive database of mass changes due to post-translational modifications of peptides and proteins is available on the Internet [16]. 

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