Title

Authors

Affiliation

¹Division of Molecular Virology, National Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB), University of the Punjab, Lahore, 53700, Pakistan; ²Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan; ³State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, 100071, People’s Republic of China

Email

tong62035@gmail.com; *Corresponding author

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

Received November 12, 2011; Accepted November 16, 2011; Published November 20, 2011

Mycoplasma genitalium is a human pathogen associated with several sexually transmitted diseases. The complete genome of M. genitalium G37 has been sequenced and provides an opportunity to understand the pathogenesis and identification of therapeutic targets. However, complete understanding of bacterial function requires proper annotation of its proteins. The genome of M. genitalium consists of 475 proteins. Among these, 94 are without any known function and are described as 'hypothetical proteins'. We selected MG_237 for sequence and structural analysis using a bioinformatics approach. Primary and secondary structure analysis suggested that MG_237 is a hydrophilic protein containing a significant proportion of alpha helices, and subcellular localization predictions suggested it is a cytoplasmic protein. Homology modeling was used to define the three-dimensional (3D) structure of MG-237. A search for templates revealed that MG_237 shares 63% homology to a hypothetical protein of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, indicating this protein is evolutionary conserved. The refined 3D model was generated using (PS)²-v2 sever that incorporates MODELLER. Several quality assessment and validation parameters were computed and indicated that the homology model is reliable. Furthermore, comparative genomics analysis suggested MG_237 as non-homologous protein and involved in four different metabolic pathways. Experimental validation will provide more insight into the actual function of this protein in microbial pathways.

Keywords

Mycoplasma genitalium; homology modelling; hypothetical proteins; comparative genomics; metabolic pathways

Citation

Butt et al. Bioinformation 7(6): 299-303 (2011)
 

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.