Large cryptic internal sequence repeats in protein structures from Homo sapiens.

ABSTRACT

Amino acid sequences are known to constantly mutate and diverge unless there is a limiting condition that makes such a change deleterious. However, closer examination of the sequence and structure reveals that a few large, cryptic repeats are nevertheless sequentially conserved. This leads to the question of why only certain repeats are conserved at the sequence level. It would be interesting to fi nd out if these sequences maintain their conservation at the three-dimensional structure level. They can play an active role in protein and nucleotide stability, thus not only ensuring proper functioning but also potentiating malfunction and disease. Therefore, insights into any aspect of the repeats – be it structure, function or evolution – would prove to be of some importance. This study aims to address the relationship between protein sequence and its three-dimensional structure, by examining if large cryptic sequence repeats have the same structure.