Title
Data enabled prediction analysis assigns folate/biopterin transporter (BT1) family to 36 hypothetical membrane proteins in Leishmania donovani
Authors
Nithin Ravooru1,3, Ojal Sarah Paul1, Expand H G Nagendra1 & Nitish Sathyanarayanan2*
Affiliation
1Department of Biotechnology, Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore;
2National Centre
for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,
Bangalore; 3Present Address, University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
E-mail: Nitish Sathyanarayanan - nitishs@ncbs.res.in; *Corresponding author
Article Type
Research Article
Date
Received June 11, 2019; Revised October 17, 2019; Accepted October 18, 2019; Published October 18, 2019
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by the pathogenic protozoan Leishmania donovani and it is transmitted by an infected sand fly. Approximately 0.4 million cases of Visceral Leishmaniasis are reported across the globe every year, of which 67% is from the Indian subcontinent. The currently available drugs have not been effective owing to their high toxicity levels, inadequate specificity, drug resistance, extended treatment periods and/or prohibitive prices. For this reason, hypothetical proteins in this pathogen, which constitute about 67% of its proteome, must be distinctly characterized and studied for their potential role as drug targets for Leishmaniasis. Domain information from PFAM and functional information from GO has been used to assign putative functions to 36 hypothetical membrane proteins in this protozoan. Furthermore, as a case study, we have performed a thorough sequence level characterization of a hypothetical protein E9BPD7 from the BT1 family of membrane proteins that transports folate/biopterin. Phylogenetic analyses of E9BPD7 have revealed interesting evolutionary correlations to BT1 family and MFS superfamily, which have significant roles in a number of diseases and drug resistance pathways.
Keywords
Leishmaniadonovani, hypothetical protein, membrane proteins, MFS, Folate/biopterin transporters
Citation
Ravooru et al. Bioinformation 15(10): 697-708 (2019)
Edited by
P Kangueane
ISSN
0973-2063
Publisher
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.
