Title

Predictive characterization of hypothetical proteins in Staphylococcus aureus NCTC 8325

Authors

Kuana School1, Jessica Marklevitz1, William K. Schram2, Laura K. Harris1*

Affiliation

1Department of Science, Davenport University, 200 S. Grand Ave, Lansing, Michigan, 48933, United States of America; 2Department of Science, Davenport University, 27650 Dequindre Rd, Warren, Michigan, 48092, United States of America;

Email

Laura K. Harris - E-mail: laura.harris@davenport.edu; Phone: (517) 719-1729; *Corresponding author

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

Received May 16, 2016; Accepted June 6, 2016; Published June 15, 2016

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common hospital acquired infections. It colonizes immunocompromised patients and with the number of antibiotic resistant strains increasing, medicine needs new treatment options. Understanding more about the proteins this organism uses would further this goal. Hypothetical proteins are sequences thought to encode a functional protein but for which little to no evidence of that function exists. About half of the genomic proteins in reference strain S. aureus NCTC 8325 are hypothetical. Since annotation of these proteins can lead to new therapeutic targets, a high demand to characterize hypothetical proteins is present. This work
examines 35 hypothetical proteins from the chromosome of S. aureus NCTC 8325. Examination includes physiochemical characterization; sequence homology; structural homology; domain recognition; structure modeling; active site depiction; predicted protein-protein interactions; protein-chemical interactions; protein localization; protein stability; and protein solubility. The examination revealed some hypothetical proteins related to virulent domains and protein-protein interactions including superoxide dismutase, O-antigen, bacterial ferric iron reductase and siderophore synthesis. Yet other hypothetical proteins appear to be metabolic or transport proteins including
ABC transporters, major facilitator superfamily, S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase, and GTPases. Progress evaluating some hypothetical proteins, particularly the smaller ones, was incomplete due to limited homology and structural information in public repositories. These data characterizing hypothetical proteins will contribute to the scientific understanding of S. aureus by identifying
potential drug targets and aiding in future drug discovery.

Keywords

S. aureus, characterization, hypothetical proteins

Citation

School et al. Bioinformation 12(3): 209-220(2016)

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.