title: Influence of cation-pi interactions on RNA-binding proteins.
abstract: The energy contribution due to cation-pi interactions has been computed for 37 RNA binding proteins. The contribution of these cation-pi interacting residues in sequential separation, secondary structure involvement, solvent accessibility, and stabilization centers has been evaluated. Sequential separation of the cation-pi involving residues show that, long range contacts predominates in all the proteins studied. Lys and Arg prefers to be in helical structures. Of the cation-pi interacting residues, Arg and Lys were in the exposed regions and the aromatic residues (Phe, Tyr and Trp) were in the buried and partially buried regions in the protein structures. Stabilization centers for these proteins showed that all the five residues found in cation-pi interactions are important in locating one or more of such centers. On the whole, the results presented in this work will be very useful for further investigations on the specificity and selectivity of RNA binding proteins and also for their structural studies.
authors.affiliation: School of Bio-Engineering and Biosciences, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, Tamil nadu, India.
authors.forename: Anand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anbarasu
authors.forename: Sudha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Anand
authors.forename: Lazar
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mathew
authors.forename: Rao
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sethumadhavan
mesh_terms: D024322:Amino Acids, Aromatic / Q000737:chemistry; D002412:Cations / Q000737:chemistry; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D024322:Amino Acids, Aromatic; D002412:Cations; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins