Evolutionary Conserved Protein Features From Analysis of Virus Shapes
Year: 2012
Type: preprint
Abstract: From the shape and size analysis of approximately 130 small icosahedral viruses we conclude that there is a typical structural capsid protein, having a mean diameter of 5 nm and a mean thickness of 3 nm, with more than two thirds of the analyzed capsid proteins having thicknesses between 2 nm and 4 nm. To investigate whether, in addition to the conserved geometry, capsid proteins show similarities in the way they interact with one another, we examined the shapes of the capsids in detail. We classified them numerically according to their similarity to sphere and icosahedron and a set of shapes in between, all obtained from the theory of elasticity of shells. In order to make a unique and straightforward connection between an idealized, numerically calculated shape of an elastic shell and a capsid, we devised a special shape fitting procedure, the outcome of which is the idealized elastic shape fitting the capsid best. Using such a procedure we performed statistical analysis of a series of virus shapes and we found strong similarities between the capsid elastic properties of even very different viruses. Our findings point to either evolutionary relatedness of most viruses or to evolutionary convergence of the examined properties of viruses. As we explain in the paper, there are both structural and functional reasons for the convergence of protein sizes and capsid elastic properties. Our work presents a specific quantitative scheme to estimate relatedness between different proteins based on the details of the (quaternary) shape they form (capsid). As such, it may provide an information complementary to the one obtained from the studies of other types of protein similarity, such as the overall composition of structural elements, topology of the folded protein backbone, and sequence similarity.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Anže Božič, Antonio Šiber, Rudolf Podgornik
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2776181698