Research article

Analysis of proteins with the 'hot dog' fold: Prediction of function and identification of catalytic residues of hypothetical proteins

Lakshmi S Pidugu¹ , Koustav Maity¹ , Karthikeyan Ramaswamy¹ , Namita Surolia² and Kaza Suguna¹

¹  Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560 012, India

²  Molecular Biology and Genetics Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, 560 064, India

author email corresponding author email

BMC Structural Biology 2009, 9:37doi:10.1186/1472-6807-9-37

Published:	28 May 2009

Abstract

Background

The hot dog fold has been found in more than sixty proteins since the first report of its existence about a decade ago. The fold appears to have a strong association with fatty acid biosynthesis, its regulation and metabolism, as the proteins with this fold are predominantly coenzyme A-binding enzymes with a variety of substrates located at their active sites.

Results

We have analyzed the structural features and sequences of proteins having the hot dog fold. This study reveals that though the basic architecture of the fold is well conserved in these proteins, significant differences exist in their sequence, nature of substrate and oligomerization. Segments with certain conserved sequence motifs seem to play crucial structural and functional roles in various classes of these proteins.

Conclusion

The analysis led to predictions regarding the functional classification and identification of possible catalytic residues of a number of hot dog fold-containing hypothetical proteins whose structures were determined in high throughput structural genomics projects.