Characterization of intrinsically disordered prostate associated gene (PAGE5) at single residue resolution by NMR spectroscopy

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 6; no. 11; p. e26633
• Main Authors: Hellman, Maarit, Tossavainen, Helena, Rappu, Pekka, Heino, Jyrki, Permi, Perttu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 02-11-2011; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Antigens; Biochemistry; Bioinformatics; Biology; Biophysics; Biotechnology; Cancer; Cancer treatment; Chromatography; Chromatography, Gel; Chromosomes; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Genes; Genetic aspects; Humans; Immunotherapy; Ligands; Magnetic resonance spectroscopy; Medical research; Medicine; Melanoma-Specific Antigens - chemistry; Molecular Sequence Data; NMR; NMR spectroscopy; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular - methods; Physics; Prostate; Protein Structure, Secondary; Proteins; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Spectroscopy; Structural analysis; Studies; California
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026633

The Cancer-Testis antigens (CTA) are proteins expressed in human germ line and certain cancer cells. CTAs form a large gene family, representing 10% of X-chromosomal genes. They have high potential for cancer-specific immunotherapy. However, their biological functions are currently unknown. Prostate associated genes (PAGE) are characterized as CTAs. PAGE5 is one of six proteins belonging to this protein family, also called CT16.
In this study we show, using bioinformatics, chromatographic and solution state NMR spectroscopic methods, that PAGE5 is an intrinsically disordered protein (IDP).
The study stands out as the first time structural characterization of the PAGE family protein and introduces how solution state NMR spectroscopy can be effectively utilized for identification of molecular recognition regions (MoRF) in IDPs, known often as transiently populated secondary structures.