BMC Plant Biology
Volume 8
|
Viewing options:Associated material:Related literature:- Articles citing this article
- Other articles by authors
- Related articles/pages
Tools:Post to:
|
Abstract (provisional)
Background
NEP1-like proteins (NLPs) are a novel family of microbial elicitors
of plant necrosis. Some NLPs induce a hypersensitive-like response
in dicot plants though the basis for this response remains unclear.
In addition, the spatial structure and the role of these highly
conserved proteins are not known.
Results
We predict a 3d-structure for the beta-rich section of
the NLPs based on alignments, prediction tools and molecular
dynamics. We calculated a consensus sequence from 42 NLPs proteins,
predicted its secondary structure and obtained a high quality
alignment of this structure and conserved residues with the two
Cupin superfamily motifs. The conserved sequence GHRHDWE and
several common residues, especially some conserved histidines, in
NLPs match closely the two cupin motifs. Besides other common
residues shared by dicot Auxin-Binding Proteins (ABPs) and NLPs, an
additional conserved histidine found in all dicot ABPs was also
found in all NLPs at the same position.
Conclusions
We propose that the necrosis inducing protein class belongs to the
Cupin superfamily. Based on the 3d-structure, we are
proposing some possible functions for the NLPs.
The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF and HTML versions are in production.
|
| 
Research article
on Google Scholar
