Prediction of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins with a Low Computational Complexity Method

The prediction of intrinsically disordered proteins is a hot research area in bio-information.Due to the high cost of experimental methods to evaluate disordered regions of protein sequences,it is becoming increasingly important to predict those regions through computational methods.In this paper,we developed a novel scheme by employing sequence complexity to calculate six features for each residue of a protein sequence,which includes the Shannon entropy,the topological entropy,the sample entropy and three amino acid preferences including Remark 465,Deleage/Roux,and Bfactor(2STD).Particularly,we introduced the sample entropy for calculating time series complexity by mapping the amino acid sequence to a time series of 0-9.To our knowledge,the sample entropy has not been previously used for predicting IDPs and hence is being used for the first time in our study.In addition,the scheme used a properly sized sliding window in every protein sequence which greatly improved the prediction performance.Finally,we used seven machine learning algorithms and tested with 10-fold cross-validation to get the results on the dataset R80 collected by Yang et al.and of the dataset DIS1556 from the Database of Protein Disorder(DisProt)(https://www.disprot.org)containing experimentally determined intrinsically disordered proteins(IDPs).The results showed that k-Nearest Neighbor was more appropriate and an overall prediction accuracy of 92%.Furthermore,our method just used six features and hence required lower computational complexity.

Prediction of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins Based on Deep Neural Network-ResNet18

Accurately,reliably and rapidly identifying intrinsically disordered(IDPs)proteins is essential as they often play important roles in various human diseases;moreover,they are related to numerous important biological activities.However,current computational methods have yet to develop a network that is sufficiently deep tomake predictions about IDPs and demonstrate an improvement in performance.During this study,we constructed a deep neural network that consisted of five identical variant models,ResNet18,combined with an MLP network,for classification.Resnet18 was applied for the first time as a deep model for predicting IDPs,which allowed the extraction of information fromIDP residues in greater detail and depth,and this information was then passed through the MLP network for the final identification process.Two well-known datasets,MXD494 and R80,were used as the blind independent datasets to compare their performance with that of our method.The simulation results showed that Matthew’s correlation coefficient obtained using our deep network model was 0.517 on the blind R80 dataset and 0.450 on the MXD494 dataset;thus,our method outperformed existing methods.

Unfoldomics of prostate cancer： on the abundance and roles of intrinsically disordered proteins in prostate cancer

Prostatic diseases such as prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia are highly prevalent among men. The number of studies focused on the abundance and roles of intrinsically disordered proteins in prostate cancer is rather limited. The goal of this study is to analyze the prevalence and degree of disorder in proteins that were previously associated with the prostate cancer pathogenesis and to compare these proteins to the entire human proteome. The analysis of these datasets provides means for drawing conclusions on the roles of disordered proteins in this common male disease. We also hope that the results of our analysis can potentially lead to future experimental studies of these proteins to find novel pathways associated with this disease.

Molecular signaling involving intrinsically disordered proteins in prostate cancer

Investigations on cellular protein interaction networks （PINs） reveal that proteins that constitute hubs in a PIN are notably enriched in Intrinsically Disordered Proteins （IDPs） compared to proteins that constitute edges, highlighting the role of IDPs in signaling pathways. Most IDPs rapidly undergo disorder-to-order transitions upon binding to their biological targets to perform their function. Conformational dynamics enables IDPs to be versatile and to interact with a broad range of interactors under normal physiological conditions where their expression is tightly modulated. IDPs are involved in many cellular processes such as cellular signaling, transcriptional regulation, and splicing; thus, their high-specificity/low-affinity interactions play crucial roles in many human diseases including cancer. Prostate cancer （PCa） is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality in men worldwide. Therefore, identifying molecular mechanisms of the oncogenic signaling pathways that are involved in prostate carcinogenesis is crucial. In this review, we focus on the aspects of cellular pathways leading to PCa in which IDPs exert a Iorimary role.

Prostate-associated gene 4 （PAGE4）, an intrinsically disordered cancer/testis antigen, is a novel therapeutic target for prostate cancer

Prostate-associated gene 4 （PAGE4） is a remarkably prostate-specific Cancer/Testis Antigen that is highly upregulated in the human fetal prostate and its diseased states but not in the adult normal gland. PAGE4 is an intrinsically disordered protein （IDP） that functions as a stress-response protein to suppress reactive oxygen species as well as prevent DNA damage. In addition, PAGE4 is also a transcriptional regulator that potentiates transactivation by the oncogene c-Jun, c-Jun forms the AP-1 complex by heterodimerizing with members of the Fos family and plays an important role in the development and pathology of the prostate gland, underscoring the importance of the PAGE4/c-Jun interaction. HIPK1, also a component of the stress-response pathway, phosphorylates PAGE4 at T51 which is critical for its transcriptional activity. Phosphorylation induces conformational and dynamic switching in the PAGE4 ensemble leading to a new cellular function. Finally, bioinformatics evidence suggests that the PAGE4 mRNA could be alternatively spliced resulting in four potential isoforms of the polypeptide alluding to the possibility of a range of conformational ensembles with latent functions. Considered together, the data suggest that PAGE4 may represent the first molecular link between stress and prostate cancer （PCa）. Thus, pharmacologically targeting PAGE4 may be a novel opportunity for treating and managing patients with PCa, especially patients with low-risk disease.

Phenotypic plasticity in prostate cancer： role of ntrinsically disordered proteins

A striking characteristic of cancer ceLls is their remarkable phenotypic plasticity, which is the ability to switch states or phenotypes in response to environmental fluctuations. Phenotypic changes such as a partial or complete epithelial to mesenchymal transition （EMT） that play important roles in their survival and proliferation, and development of resistance to therapeutic treatments, are widely believed to arise due to somatic mutations in the genome. However, there is a growing concern that such a deterministic view is not entirely consistent with multiple lines of evidence, which indicate that stochasticity may also play an important role in driving phenotypic plasticity. Here, we discuss how stochasticity in protein interaction networks （PINs） may play a key role in determining phenotypic plasticity in prostate cancer （PCa）. Specifically, we point out that the key players driving transitions among different phenotypes （epithelial, mesenchymal, and hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal）, including ZEB1, SNAIl, OVOL1, and OVOL2, are intrinsically disordered proteins （IDPs） and discuss how plasticity at the molecular level may contribute to stochasticity in phenotypic switching by rewiring PINs. We conclude by suggesting that targeting iDPs implicated in EMT in PCa may be a new strategy to gain additional insights and develop novel treatments for this disease, which is the most common form of cancer in adult men.

Structural and nucleic acid binding properties of hepatitis delta virus small antigen

AIM To further characterize the structure and nucleic acid binding properties of the 195 amino acid small delta antigen, S-HDAg, a study was made of a truncated form of S-HDAg, comprising amino acids 61-195(?60HDAg), thus lacking the domain considered necessary for dimerization and higher order multimerization.METHODS Circular dichroism, and nuclear magnetic resonance experiments were used to assess the structure of ?60HDAg. Nucleic acid binding properties were investigated by gel retardation assays. RESULTS Results showed that the truncated ?60HDAg protein is intrinsically disordered but compact, whereas the RNA binding domain, comprising residues 94-146, adopts a dynamic helical conformation. We also found that ?60HDAg fails to multimerize but still contains nucleic acid binding activity, indicating that multimerization is not essential for nucleic acid binding. Moreover, in agreement with what has been previously reported for full-length protein, no apparent specificity was found for the truncated protein regarding nucleic acid binding.CONCLUSION Taken together these results allowed concluding that ?60HDAg is intrinsically disordered but compact; ?60HDAg is not a multimer but is still capable of nucleic acid binding albeit without apparent specificity.

Exploring Potential Signals of Selection for Disordered Residues in Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Proteins

Intrinsically disordered proteins(IDPs)are an important class of proteins in all domains of life for their functional importance.However,how nature has shaped the disorder potential of prokaryotic and eukaryotic proteins is still not clearly known.Randomly generated sequences are free of any selective constraints,thus these sequences are commonly used as null models.Considering different types of random protein models,here we seek to understand how the disorder potential of natural eukaryotic and prokaryotic proteins differs from random sequences.Comparing proteomewide disorder content between real and random sequences of 12 model organisms,we noticed that eukaryotic proteins are enriched in disordered regions compared to random sequences,but in prokaryotes such regions are depleted.By analyzing the position-wise disorder profile,we show that there is a generally higher disorder near the N-and C-terminal regions of eukaryotic proteins as compared to the random models;however,either no or a weak such trend was found in prokaryotic proteins.Moreover,here we show that this preference is not caused by the amino acid or nucleotide composition at the respective sites.Instead,these regions were found to be endowed with a higher fraction of protein-protein binding sites,suggesting their functional importance.We discuss several possible explanations for this pattern,such as improving the efficiency of protein-protein interaction,ribosome movement during translation,and post-translational modification.However,further studies are needed to clearly understand the biophysical mechanisms causing the trend.

Condensation of STM is critical for shoot meristem maintenance and salt tolerance in Arabidopsis

The shoot meristem generates the entire shoot system and is precisely maintained throughout the life cycle under various environmental challenges.In this study,we identified a prion-like domain(PrD)in the key shoot meristem regulator SHOOT MERISTEMLESS(STM),which distinguishes STM from other related KNOX1 proteins.We demonstrated that PrD stimulates STM to form nuclear condensates,which are required for maintaining the shoot meristem.STM nuclear condensate formation is stabilized by selected PrD-containing STM-interacting BELL proteins in vitro and in vivo.Moreover,condensation of STM promotes its interaction with the Mediator complex subunit MED8 and thereby enhances its transcriptional activity.Thus,condensate formation emerges as a novel regulatory mechanism of shoot meristem functions.Furthermore,we found that the formation of STM condensates is enhanced upon salt stress,which allows enhanced salt tolerance and increased shoot branching.Our findings highlight that the transcription factor partitioning plays an important role in cell fate determination and might also act as a tunable environmental acclimation mechanism.

Steroid hormone receptors and prostate cancer： role of structural dynamics in therapeutic targeting

Steroid hormone receptors （SHRs） act in cell type- and gene-specific manner through interactions with coregulatory proteins to regulate numerous physiological and pathological processes at the level of gene regulation. Binding of steroid receptor modulator （SRM） ligand leads to allosteric changes in SHR to exert positive or negative effects on the expression of target genes. Due, in part, to the fact that current SRMs generally target ligand binding domain （LBD）/AF2 and neglect intrinsically disordered （ID） N-terminal domain （NTD）/AF1, clinically relevant SRMs lack selectivity and are also prone to the development of resistance over time. Therefore, to maximize the efficacy of SHR-based therapeutics, the possibility of developing unique modulators that act to control AF1 activity must be considered. Recent studies targeting androgen receptor＇s （AR＇s） ID AF1 domain for the castration-resistant prostate cancer has provided the possibility of therapeutically targeting ID NTD/AF1 surfaces by allosteric modulations to achieve desired effects. In this review article, we discuss how inter- and intra- molecular allosteric regulations controlled by AR＇s structural flexibility and dynamics particularly the ID NTD/AF1 is an emerging area of investigation, which could be exploited for drug development and therapeutic targeting of prostate cancer.

Mechanisms and regulation underlying membraneless organelle plasticity control

Evolution has enabled living cells to adopt their structural and functional complexity by organizing intricate cellular compartments,such as membrane-bound and membraneless organelles(MLOs),for spatiotemporal catalysis of physiochemical reactions essential for cell plasticity control.Emerging evidence and view support the notion that MLOs are built by multivalent interactions of biomolecules via phase separation and transition mechanisms.In healthy cells,dynamic chemical modifications regulate MLO plasticity,and reversible phase separation is essential for cell homeostasis.Emerging evidence revealed that aberrant phase separation results in numerous neurodegenerative disorders,cancer,and other diseases.In this review,we provide molecular underpinnings on(i)mechanistic understanding of phase separation,(ii)unifying structural and mechanistic principles that underlie this phenomenon,(iii)various mechanisms that are used by cells for the regulation of phase separation,and(iv)emerging therapeutic and other applications.

MINAR1 is a Notch2-binding protein that inhibits angiogenesis and breast cancer growth

Intrinsically disordered proteins （IDPs）/intrinsicaUy unstructured proteins are characterized by the lack of fixed or stable tertiary structure, and are increasingly recognized as an important class of proteins with major roles in signal transduction and transcriptional regulation. In this study, we report the identification and functional characterization of a previously uncharacterized protein （UPFO258/KIAA1024）, major intrinsically disordered Notch2-associated receptor 1 （MINAR1）. While MINAR1 carries a single transmembrane domain and a short cytoplasmic domain, it has a large extraceUular domain that shares no similarity with known protein sequences. Uncharacteristically, MINAR1 is a highly IDP with nearly 70% of its amino acids sequences unstructured. We demonstrate that MINAR1 physically interacts with Notch2 and its binding to Notch2 increases its stability and function. MINAR1 is widely expressed in various tissues including the epithelial cells of the breast and endothelial cells of blood vessels. MINAR1 plays a negative role in angioganesis as it inhibits angioganesis in cell culture and in mouse matrigal plug and zebraflsh anglo- genesis models. Furthermore, while MINAR1 is highly expressed in the normal human breast, its expression is significantly down- regulated in advanced human breast cancer and its re-expression in breast cancer cells inhibited tumor growth. Our study demonstrates that MINAR1 is an IDP that negatively regulates angioganesis and growth of breast cancer cells.

Transport receptor occupancy in nuclear pore complex mimics

Nuclear pore complexes(NPCs)regulate all molecular transport between the nucleus and the cytoplasm in eukaryotic cells.Intrinsically disordered Phe-Gly nucleoporins(FG-Nups)line the central conduit of NPCs to impart a selective barrier where large proteins are excluded unless bound to a transport receptor(karyopherin;Kap).Here,we assess“Kap-centric”NPC models,which postulate that Kaps participate in establishing the selective barrier.We combine biomimetic nanopores,formed by tethering Nsp1 to the inner wall of a solid-state nanopore,with coarse-grained modeling to show that yeast Kap95 exhibits two populations in Nsp1-coated pores:one population that is transported across the pore in milliseconds,and a second population that is stably assembled within the FG mesh of the pore.Ionic current measurements show a conductance decrease for increasing Kap concentrations and noise data indicate an increase in rigidity of the FG-mesh.Modeling reveals an accumulation of Kap95 near the pore wall,yielding a conductance decrease.We find that Kaps only mildly affect the conformation of the Nsp1 mesh and that,even at high concentrations,Kaps only bind at most 8%of the FG-motifs in the nanopore,indicating that Kap95 occupancy is limited by steric constraints rather than by depletion of available FG-motifs.Our data provide an alternative explanation of the origin of bimodal NPC binding of Kaps,where a stable population of Kaps binds avidly to the NPC periphery,while fast transport proceeds via a central FG-rich channel through lower affinity interactions between Kaps and the cohesive domains of Nsp1.

Computational Analysis of Position-dependent Disorder Content in DisProt Database

A bioinformatics analysis of disorder content of proteins from the DisProt database has been performed with respect to position of dis- ordered residues. Each protein chain was divided into three parts： N- and C- terminal parts with each containing 30 amino acid （AA） residues and the middle region containing the remaining AA residues. The results show that in terminal parts, the percentage of disor- dered AA residues is higher than that of all AA residues （17% of disordered AA residues and 11% of all）. We analyzed the percentage of disorder for each of 20 AA residues in the three parts of proteins with respect to their hydropathy and molecular weight. For each AA, the percentage of disorder in the middle part is lower than that in terminal parts which is comparable at the two termini. A new scale of AAs has been introduced according to their disorder content in the middle part of proteins： CIFWMLYHRNVTAGQDSKEP. All big hydrophobic AAs are less frequently disordered, while almost all small hydrophilic AAs are more frequently disordered. The results obtained may be useful for construction and improving predictors for protein disorder.

Computational prediction and validation of specific EmbR binding site on PknH

Tuberculosis drug resistance continues to threaten global health but the underline molecular mechanisms are not clear.Ethambutol(EMB),one of the well-known first-line drugs in tuberculosis treatment is,unfortunately,not free from drug resistance problems.Genomic studies have shown that some genetic mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis(Mtb)EmbR,and EmbC/A/B genes cause EMB resistance.EmbR-PknH pair controls embC/A/B operon,which encodes EmbC/A/B genes,and EMB interacts with EmbA/B proteins.However,the EmbR binding site on PknH was unknown.We conducted molecular simulation on the EmbR-peptides binding structures and discovered phosphorylated PknH 273-280(N′-HEALS^(P)DPD-C′)makesβstrand with the EmbR FHA domain,asβ-MoRF(MoRF;molecular recognition feature)does at its binding site.Hydrogen bond number analysis also supported the peptides’β-MoRF forming activity at the EmbR FHA domain.Also,we discovered that previously known phosphorylation residues might have their chronological order according to the phosphorylation status.The discovery validated that Mtb PknH 273-280(N′-HEALSDPD-C′)has reliable EmbR binding affinity.This approach is revolutionary in the computer-aided drug discovery field,because it is the first trial to discover the protein-protein interaction site,and find binding partner in nature from this site.

Molecular determinants for the layering and coarsening of biological condensates

Many membraneless organelles,or biological condensates,form through phase separation,and play key roles in signal sensing and transcriptional regulation.While the functional importance of these condensates has inspired many studies to characterize their stability and spatial organization,the underlying principles that dictate these emergent properties are still being uncovered.In this review,we examine recent work on biological condensates,especially multicomponent systems.We focus on connecting molecular factors such as binding energy,valency,and stoichiometry with the interfacial tension,explaining the nontrivial interior organization in many condensates.We further discuss mechanisms that arrest condensate coalescence by lowering the surface tension or introducing kinetic barriers to stabilize the multidroplet state.

Liquid–liquid phase separation in plants:Advances and perspectives from model species to crops

Membraneless biomolecular condensates play important roles in both normal biological activities and re-sponses to environmental stimuli in living organisms.Liquid‒liquid phase separation(LLPS)is an organi-zational mechanism that has emerged in recent years to explain the formation of biomolecular conden-sates.In the past decade,advances in LLPS research have contributed to breakthroughs in diseasefields.By contrast,although LLPS research in plants has progressed over the past 5 years,it has been concentrated on the model plant Arabidopsis,which has limited relevance to agricultural production.In this review,we provide an overview of recently reported advances in LLPS in plants,with a particular focus on photomorphogenesis,flowering,and abiotic and biotic stress responses.We propose that many potential LLPS proteins also exist in crops and may affect crop growth,development,and stress resistance.This possibility presents a great challenge as well as an opportunity for rigorous scientific research on the biological functions and applications of LLPS in crops.