Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2012

Publication Title

PLoS One

Volume

7

Issue

12

First page number:

1

Last page number:

16

Abstract

Minimotifs are short contiguous segments of proteins that have a known biological function. The hundreds of thousands of minimotifs discovered thus far are an important part of the theoretical understanding of the specificity of protein-protein interactions, posttranslational modifications, and signal transduction that occur in cells. However, a longstanding problem is that the different abstractions of the sequence definitions do not accurately capture the specificity, despite decades of effort by many labs. We present evidence that structure is an essential component of minimotif specificity, yet is not used in minimotif definitions. Our analysis of several known minimotifs as case studies, analysis of occurrences of minimotifs in structured and disordered regions of proteins, and review of the literature support a new model for minimotif definitions that includes sequence, structure, and function.

Keywords

Biology; Cellular signal transduction; Genetics; Minimotifs; Post-translational modification; Proteins

Disciplines

Biochemistry | Biology | Computer Sciences | Life Sciences | Molecular Biology | Structural Biology

Language

English

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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