STRUCTURAL HOMOLOGIES BETWEEN KINESIN & MYOSIN SUPERFAMILIES

驱动蛋白和肌球蛋白是两种不同的肌球蛋白的创始成员。 负责运动的蛋白质超家族。 委员虽然 这两个蛋白质家族都能产生力， 运动，它们没有显示出可检测的序列同源性。 不料 肌球蛋白和驱动蛋白的晶体结构都是同源的， 另一个，表明它们有一个共同的ATP机制， 水解和可能的力产生的共同机制。 通过 通过比较这两种结构，我们确定了同源 两种蛋白质的区域。 同源区域比较 随着大量已知的驱动蛋白和肌球蛋白结构， 使我们能够确定保守区域中的关键残基。 我们目前正在研究这些残基在体内的可能功能 与计算机图形学中的分子建模相结合 实验室 该项目的另一个目标是寻找其他 共享驱动蛋白/肌球蛋白折叠的潜在马达。 我们有 通过在基因库中搜索与以下序列相匹配的序列， 从保守区域确定的指纹，或者与 从保守区域确定的图谱。 这项工作仍然是 正在进行中

Kinesin and myosin are the founding members of two distinct superfamilies of proteins responsible for motility. While members of both protein families generate force and are responsible for producing motion, they show no detectable equence homology. Unexpectedly, the crystal structures of both myosin and kinesin are homologous to one another, indicating that they share a common mechanism of ATP hydrolysis and possibly a common mechanism of force generation. By comparison of the two structures, we have determined the homologous regions of the two proteins. Comparison of the homologous regions with the large numbers of known kinesin and myosin structures has enabled us to determine the crucial residues in the conserved regions. We are currently examining the possible functions of these residues in combination with molecular modeling at the Computer Graphics Laboratory. An additional goal of this project is to search for other potential motors which share the kinesin/myosin fold. We have approached this by searching Genbank for sequences which match either a fingerprint determined from the conserved regions, or which match a profile determined from the conserved regions. This work is still underway.