title: A structural model of the chitin-binding domain of cuticle proteins.
abstract: The nature of the interaction of insect cuticular proteins and chitin is unknown even though about half of the cuticular proteins sequenced thus far share a consensus region that has been predicted to be the site of chitin binding. We previously predicted the preponderance of beta-pleated sheet in the consensus region and proposed its responsibility for the formation of helicoidal cuticle (Iconomidou et al., Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. 29 (1999) 285). Consequently, we have also verified experimentally the abundance of antiparallel beta-pleated sheet in the structure of cuticle proteins (Iconomidou et al., Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. 31 (2001) 877). In this work, based on sequence and secondary structure similarity of cuticle proteins, and especially that of the consensus motif, to that of bovine plasma retinol binding protein (RBP), we propose by homology modelling an antiparallel beta-sheet half-barrel structure as the basic folding motif of cuticle proteins. This folding motif may provide the template for elucidating cuticle protein-chitin interactions in detail and reveal the precise geometrical formation of cuticle's helicoidal architecture. This predicted motif is another example where nature utilizes an almost flat protein surface covered by aromatic side chains to interact with the polysaccharide chains of chitin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of Athens, Athens 157 01, Greece. shamodr@cc.uoa.gr
authors.forename: Stavros J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hamodrakas
authors.forename: Judith H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Willis
authors.forename: Vassiliki A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Iconomidou
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D002686:Chitin / Q000378:metabolism*; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D019476:Insect Proteins; C047663:cuticle proteins, insects; D002686:Chitin