title: Intracellular domain of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor: the importance of being unfolded.
abstract: Bioinformatics methods with subsequent verification by experimental data were applied to the structural investigation of the intracellular loop of the delta-subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR). Three complementary methods were used: prediction of secondary structure elements, prediction of ordered/disordered protein regions and prediction of short functional binding motifs. The output of five different algorithms was used for the secondary structure construction. Most of the intracellular domain is predicted to be unfolded. The predictions correlate well with the experimental data of limited proteolysis and NMR performed on the mostly monomeric fraction of heterologously expressed Torpedo intracellular domain protein. Twelve functional binding motifs within the disordered regions of the nAChR intracellular domain are predicted. Identification of proteins that interact with the intracellular domain will provide a better understanding of protein-protein interactions involved in nAChR assembly, trafficking and clustering.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biochemistry, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany. kukhtina@chemie.fu-berlin.de
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kukhtina
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kottwitz
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Heise
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chebotareva
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tsetlin
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hucho
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D015870:Gene Expression; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases / Q000378:metabolism; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D021122:Protein Subunits / Q000737:chemistry; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D014101:Torpedo
chemical_list: D021122:Protein Subunits; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases