The importance of loop length in the folding of an immunoglobulin domain

Protein Eng Des Sel. 2004 May;17(5):443-53. doi: 10.1093/protein/gzh052. Epub 2004 Jun 18.

Abstract

Immunoglobulin (Ig)-like proteins have been shown to fold following formation of a nucleus comprising interactions between residues that are distant in the primary sequence. What role do the loops connecting these nucleus residues play? Here, the importance of loops connecting beta-strands in different sheets of the Ig fold is investigated, by insertion of five glycine residues into the B-C loop of an Ig domain from human titin, TI I27. The folding pathway of this elongated 'pseudo wild-type' TI I27 is probed using protein engineering and Phi-value analysis. The Phi-values calculated for mutants within the pseudo wild-type protein indicate that the folding nucleus in wild-type TI I27 is conserved, supporting the hypothesis that the inter-sheet loop is not critical to the formation of a long-range folding nucleus.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Connectin
  • Humans
  • Immunoglobulins / chemistry*
  • Immunoglobulins / genetics
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Muscle Proteins / chemistry*
  • Muscle Proteins / genetics
  • Mutation
  • Protein Folding*
  • Protein Kinases / chemistry*
  • Protein Kinases / genetics
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Structural Homology, Protein

Substances

  • Connectin
  • Immunoglobulins
  • Muscle Proteins
  • TTN protein, human
  • Protein Kinases