Title

Prediction of functions for two LEA proteins from mung bean

Authors

Subramanian Rajesh¹ and Ayyanar Manickam^1*

Affiliation

¹Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641 003, India

E-mail*

manickam_a@hotmail.com; * Corresponding author

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

received March 23, 2006; accepted April 16, 2006; published online April 16, 2006

Abstract

LEA (late embryogenesis abundant) proteins are associated with tolerance to water stress resulting from desiccation and cold shock. Although various functions have been proposed to LEA proteins, their precise role is not fully defined. In silico analysis of the amino acid sequence of two LEA proteins (early methionine-labeled Vigna, EMV) from the tropical legume crop, Vigna radiata identified a 20 residues motif ‘GGQTRKQQLGSEGYHEMGRK’ characteristic to group 1 LEA proteins. Structural analyses hypothesize these proteins to function like DNA/RNA binding proteins in protecting macromolecules/ membrane stabilization at the time of dehydration process.

Keywords

LEA proteins; Vigna radiate; 20-mer motif; function assignments; DNA/RNA binding proteins

Citation

Rajesh & Manickam, Bioinformation 1(4): 133-138 (2006)

Edited by

P. Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.