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Showing posts with the label protein domain

PURE: a webserver for the prediction of domains in unassigned regions in proteins

Protein domains are the structural and functional units of proteins. The ability to parse proteins into different domains is important for effective classification, understanding of protein structure, function, and evolution and is hence biologically relevant. Several computational methods are available to identify domains in the sequence. Domain finding algorithms often employ stringent thresholds to recognize sequence domains. Identification of additional domains can be tedious involving intense computation and manual intervention but can lead to better understanding of overall biological function. In this context, the problem of identifying new domains in the unassigned regions of a protein sequence assumes a crucial importance. Accumulation of domain information of sequence homologues can substantially aid prediction of new domains. In this paper, we propose a computationally intensive, multi-step bioinformatics protocol as a web server named as PURE (Prediction of Unassigned REg...

Conserved Domain Database (CDD) has been updated

The CDD [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/cdd/cdd.shtml ] and the its search tool [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/cdd/wrpsb.cgi ] has been recently updated. Also check out the latest approach for "automatically assigning subcellular locations" to protein from Newberg and Murphy [ http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/jprobs/asap/abs/pr7007626.html ].

Scientists characterize protein structure of environmentally friendly bacteria

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have determined the structure of a key protein domain in a bacterium that could help with bioremediation of uranium-contaminated land sites. The researchers, led by Argonne senior biophysicist Marianne Schiffer, characterized the structure of one of the principal domains in a protein responsible for certain types of movement exhibited by the bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens. Geobacter lives in predominantly low oxygen environments and generates energy by transferring electrons to various metallic electron-accepting atoms such as iron or uranium. This ability suggests that Geobacter might be used for remediation of certain types of hazardous waste. For example, when uranium is reduced by this process to its insoluble form, it no longer leaks into groundwater and engineers can inexpensively remove the precipitated uranium. Do you want to know more?