title: Structural modeling of ataxin-3 reveals distant homology to adaptins.
abstract: Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) is a polyglutamine disorder caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the coding region of a gene encoding ataxin-3, a protein of yet unknown function. Based on a comprehensive computational analysis, we propose a structural model and structure-based functions for ataxin-3. Our predictive strategy comprises the compilation of multiple sequence and structure alignments of carefully selected proteins related to ataxin-3. These alignments are consistent with additional information on sequence motifs, secondary structure, and domain architectures. The application of complementary methods revealed the homology of ataxin-3 to ENTH and VHS domain proteins involved in membrane trafficking and regulatory adaptor functions. We modeled the structure of ataxin-3 using the adaptin AP180 as a template and assessed the reliability of the model by comparison with known sequence and structural features. We could further infer potential functions of ataxin-3 in agreement with known experimental data. Our database searches also identified an as yet uncharacterized family of proteins, which we named josephins because of their pronounced homology to the Josephin domain of ataxin-3.
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing (SCAI), Schloss Birlinghoven, Sankt Augustin, Germany. mario.albrecht@scai.fhg.de
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Albrecht
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.forename: Bernd O
authors.initials: BO
authors.lastname: Evert
authors.forename: Ina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schmitt
authors.forename: Ullrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Wüllner
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lengauer
mesh_terms: D033982:Adaptor Protein Complex gamma Subunits / Q000737:chemistry*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000067699:Ataxin-3; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D030562:Databases, Protein; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017385:Sequence Homology; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D033982:Adaptor Protein Complex gamma Subunits; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010455:Peptides; D012097:Repressor Proteins; C097188:polyglutamine; C092341:ATXN3 protein, human; D000067699:Ataxin-3