title: Structural and Energetic Characterization of the Ankyrin Repeat Protein Family.
abstract: Ankyrin repeat containing proteins are one of the most abundant solenoid folds. Usually implicated in specific protein-protein interactions, these proteins are readily amenable for design, with promising biotechnological and biomedical applications. Studying repeat protein families presents technical challenges due to the high sequence divergence among the repeating units. We developed and applied a systematic method to consistently identify and annotate the structural repetitions over the members of the complete Ankyrin Repeat Protein Family, with increased sensitivity over previous studies. We statistically characterized the number of repeats, the folding of the repeat-arrays, their structural variations, insertions and deletions. An energetic analysis of the local frustration patterns reveal the basic features underlying fold stability and its relation to the functional binding regions. We found a strong linear correlation between the conservation of the energetic features in the repeat arrays and their sequence variations, and discuss new insights into the organization and function of these ubiquitous proteins.
authors.affiliation: Protein Physiology Lab, Dep de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UBA-CONICET-IQUIBICEN, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: R Gonzalo
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Parra
authors.affiliation: Protein Physiology Lab, Dep de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UBA-CONICET-IQUIBICEN, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Rocío
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Espada
authors.affiliation: Protein Physiology Lab, Dep de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UBA-CONICET-IQUIBICEN, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Verstraete
authors.affiliation: Protein Physiology Lab, Dep de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UBA-CONICET-IQUIBICEN, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Diego U
authors.initials: DU
authors.lastname: Ferreiro
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017089:Ankyrin Repeat; D017487:Ankyrins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004735:Energy Transfer; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D017487:Ankyrins