Correlation analysis for protein evolutionary family based on amino acid position mutations and application in PDZ domain.
BACKGROUND
It has been widely recognized that the mutations at specific directions are caused by the functional constraints in protein family and the directional mutations at certain positions control the evolutionary direction of the protein family. The mutations at different positions, even distantly separated, are mutually coupled and form an evolutionary network. Finding the controlling mutative positions and the mutative network among residues are firstly important for protein rational design and enzyme engineering.


METHODS
A computational approach, namely amino acid position conservation-mutation correlation analysis (CMCA), is developed to predict mutually mutative positions and find the evolutionary network in protein family. The amino acid position mutative function, which is the foundational equation of CMCA measuring the mutation of a residue at a position, is derived from the MSA (multiple structure alignment) database of protein evolutionary family. Then the position conservation correlation matrix and position mutation correlation matrix is constructed from the amino acid position mutative equation. Unlike traditional SCA (statistical coupling analysis) approach, which is based on the statistical analysis of position conservations, the CMCA focuses on the correlation analysis of position mutations.


CONCLUSIONS
As an example the CMCA approach is used to study the PDZ domain of protein family, and the results well illustrate the distantly allosteric mechanism in PDZ protein family, and find the functional mutative network among residues. We expect that the CMCA approach may find applications in protein engineering study, and suggest new strategy to improve bioactivities and physicochemical properties of enzymes.
State Key Laboratory of Bioenergy Enzyme Technology, National Engineering Research Center for Non-food Biorefinery, Guangxi Academy of Sciences, Nanning, Guangxi, China. qishi_du@yahoo.com.cn
Qi-Shi
QS
Du
Cheng-Hua
CH
Wang
Si-Ming
SM
Liao
Ri-Bo
RB
Huang
D000494:Allosteric Regulation; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008024:Ligands; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D011485:Protein Binding; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D008024:Ligands; D011506:Proteins