Intrinsic protein disorder in human pathways

Mol Biosyst. 2012 Jan;8(1):320-6. doi: 10.1039/c1mb05274h. Epub 2011 Oct 20.

Abstract

We analyze human-specific KEGG pathways trying to understand the functional role of intrinsic disorder in proteins. Pathways provide a comprehensive picture of biological processes and allow better understanding of a protein's function within the specific context of its surroundings. Our study pinpoints a few specific pathways significantly enriched in disorder-containing proteins and identifies the role of these proteins within the framework of pathway relationships. Three major categories of relations are shown to be significantly enriched in disordered proteins: gene expression, protein binding and to a lesser degree, protein phosphorylation. Finally we find that relations involving protein activation and to some extent inhibition are characterized by low disorder content.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Metabolic Networks and Pathways*
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Folding*
  • Proteins / chemistry*
  • Proteins / metabolism*

Substances

  • Proteins