title: Aromatic di-alanine repeats (AdAR) are structural motifs characteristic of the soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein (SNAP) family.
abstract: The aromatic di-alanine repeat is a novel 12-amino acid-long motif constituting alternate small and large hydrophobic residues that mediate the close packing of alpha-helices. A hidden Markov model profile was constructed from the motifs initially described in Soluble N-ethyl maleimide-sensitive factor attachment proteins (SNAP), a family of soluble proteins involved in intracellular membrane fusion. Scanning different sets of protein sequences showed unambiguously that this profile defines a structural motif independent of the tetratrico peptide repeat, another widespread alpha-helical motif. In addition to SNAP, aromatic di-alanine repeats are found in selective LIM homeodomain binding proteins (SLB) and in proteins from the Pyrococcus and Archaeoglobus prokaryotes.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Biochimie et Biophysique des Systèmes Intégrés, UMR 5092 Université Joseph Fourier/CEA/CNRS, Département de Biologie Moléculaire et Structurale, CEA-Grenoble, France. fbruckert@cea.fr
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bruckert
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Casavant
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Satre
mesh_terms: D000409:Alanine / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D003198:Computer Simulation; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D016208:Databases, Factual; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D008390:Markov Chains; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D008958:Models, Molecular; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D020449:Repetitive Sequences, Amino Acid; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D052067:Soluble N-Ethylmaleimide-Sensitive Factor Attachment Proteins; D033921:Vesicular Transport Proteins
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C075137:SEC17 protein, S cerevisiae; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D052067:Soluble N-Ethylmaleimide-Sensitive Factor Attachment Proteins; D033921:Vesicular Transport Proteins; D000409:Alanine