title: Structural studies of "aggregation-prone" peptide-analogues of teleostean egg chorion ZPB proteins.
abstract: Egg envelopes of vertebrates are composed of a family of proteins called zona pellucida (ZP) proteins, which are distinguished by the presence of a common structural polymerizing motif, known as ZP domain. Teleostean fish chorion is a fibrous structure, consisting of protein members of the ZPB/ZP1 and the ZPC/ZP3 families, which are incorporated as tandemly repeating heterodimers inside chorion fibers. Computational analysis of multiple ZPB/ZP1 proteins from several teleostean species, reveals two potential "aggregation-prone" sequence segments, forming a specific polymerization interface (AG interface). These two peptides were synthesized and results are presented in this work from transmission electron microscopy, Congo red staining, X-ray fiber diffraction and ATR FT-IR, which clearly display the ability of these peptides to self-aggregate, forming amyloid-like fibrils. This, most probably implies that the AG interface of ZPB/ZP1 proteins plays an important role for the formation of the repeating ZPB-ZPC heterodimers, which constitute teleostean chorion fibrils.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Athens, 157 01, Greece.
authors.forename: Nikolaos N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Louros
authors.forename: Nektaria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Petronikolou
authors.forename: Theodoros
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Karamanos
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cordopatis
authors.forename: Vassiliki A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Iconomidou
authors.forename: Stavros J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hamodrakas
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000682:Amyloid / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000818:Animals; D016384:Consensus Sequence; D004527:Egg Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D029941:Fish Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010063:Ovum / Q000737:chemistry*; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D066329:Protein Aggregates; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D040681:Structural Homology, Protein; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction; D015044:Zona Pellucida / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000682:Amyloid; D004527:Egg Proteins; D029941:Fish Proteins; D010455:Peptides; D066329:Protein Aggregates; C015753:chorion proteins
keywords: amyloid fibrils; functional protective amyloids; peptide-analogues; teleostean fish chorion; vitelline envelope; zona pellucida proteins