Molecular modeling of the Plasmodium falciparum pre-mRNA splicing and nuclear export factor PfU52

1 Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA
2 National Coalition of Independent Scholars (NCIS), San Antonio, TX, USA
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.106v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Biochemistry, Bioinformatics, Molecular Biology, Parasitology, Infectious Diseases
Keywords
RNA helicases, Homology modeling, Plasmodium falciparum, Structure-based drug design
Copyright
© 2013 Newo Soufo
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Cite this article
Newo Soufo AN. 2013. Molecular modeling of the Plasmodium falciparum pre-mRNA splicing and nuclear export factor PfU52. PeerJ PrePrints 1:e106v1

Abstract

UAP56/SUB2 is a DExD/H-box RNA helicase that is critically involved in pre-mRNA splicing and mRNA nuclear export. This helicase is broadly conserved and essential in many eukaryotic lineages, including protozoan and metazoan parasites. Previous research suggests that helicases from parasites could be promising drug targets for treating parasitic diseases. Accordingly, characterizing the structure and function of these proteins is of interest for structure-based, de novo design of new lead compounds. Here, we used homology modeling to construct a three-dimensional structure of PfU52 (PMDB ID: PM0079288), the Plasmodium falciparum ortholog of UAP56/SUB2. Comparative in silico analysis revealed that although PfU52 shared many physicochemical, structural and dynamic similarities with its human homolog, it also displayed some unique features that could be exploited for drug design.

Author Comment

This abstract is a part of a submission under review with PeerJ.