title: Simple sequence in brain and nervous system specific proteins.
abstract: We examined sequences expressed in the brain and nervous system using EST data. A previous study including sequences thought to have neurological function found a deficiency of simple sequence within such sequences. This was despite many examples of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington disease, which are thought to be caused by expansions of polyglutamine tracts within associated protein sequences. It may be that many of the sequences thought to have neurological function have other additional, non-neurological roles. For this reason, we examined sequences with specific expression in the brain and nervous system, using EST expression data to determine if they too are deficient of simple, repetitive sequences. Indeed, we find this class of sequences to be deficient. Unexpectedly, however, we find sequences expressed in the brain and nervous system to be consistently enriched for histidine-enriched simple sequence. Determining the function of these histidine-rich regions within brain-specific proteins requires more experimental data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Melanie A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Huntley
authors.forename: Sanaa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mahmood
authors.forename: G Brian
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Golding
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D019295:Computational Biology; D030562:Databases, Protein; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009420:Nervous System / Q000378:metabolism*; D014982:Xenopus laevis; D015027:Zebrafish
chemical_list: D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins