predicting and testing enzymatic activity
DESCRIPTION
Predicting and testing enzymatic activity. Charlie Harrison Supervisors: Profs. John Ward & Christine Orengo. Norcoclaurine. Benzylisoquinoline alkaloids ( BIQAs ) group of plant secondary metabolites. I ncludes many interesting compounds Common entry point: norcoclaurine. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Predicting and testing enzymatic activity
Charlie HarrisonSupervisors: Profs. John Ward &
Christine Orengo
Norcoclaurine• Benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIQAs)– group of plant secondary metabolites
• Includes many interesting compounds• Common entry point: norcoclaurine
(S)-norcoclaurine (R)-norcoclaurine
Norcoclaurine• NorcoClaurine Synthase – NCS• Five known examples from three different
species• But BIQAs exist in many more species…• Can we find more NCSs?
Main Project Aims• Bioinformatics– Identify uncharacterised proteins that are likely to
exhibit NCS activity• Lab Work– Express these proteins in E.coli and test
predictions
Bioinformatics• Available data: sequence and structure
• Use these to predict function
Bioinformatics
Reproduced from Orengo, Jones & Thornton 2003 with permission
Bioinformatics• Structural data is better for identifying
functional homologues...
Bioinformatics• Structural data is better for identifying
functional homologues...but is only available for ~1% of sequences
• Use predictions of structural regions – Gene3D• Starting point: Gene3D family of likely
structural relatives• Sequence clustering
Bioinformatics
Lab Work• Design and order the synthetic genes
Wait 3 weeks…
Lab Work
Results
✓ ✓
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Results
Thanks