%0 Journal Article %J Protein Engineering %D 1996 %T Does a backwardly read protein sequence have a unique native state? %A Krzysztof A. Olszewski %A Andrzej Koliński %A Jeffrey Skolnick %K Amino Acid Sequence %K Computer Simulation %K Models %K Molecular %K Molecular Sequence Data %K Monte Carlo Method %K Protein Conformation %K Protein Engineering %K Protein Folding %K Protein Structure %K Secondary %K Staphylococcal Protein A %K Staphylococcal Protein A: chemistry %K Tertiary %X Amino acid sequences of native proteins are generally not palindromic. Nevertheless, the protein molecule obtained as a result of reading the sequence backwards, i.e. a retro-protein, obviously has the same amino acid composition and the same hydrophobicity profile as the native sequence. The important questions which arise in the context of retro-proteins are: does a retro-protein fold to a well defined native-like structure as natural proteins do and, if the answer is positive, does a retro-protein fold to a structure similar to the native conformation of the original protein? In this work, the fold of retro-protein A, originated from the retro-sequence of the B domain of Staphylococcal protein A, was studied. As a result of lattice model simulations, it is conjectured that the retro-protein A also forms a three-helix bundle structure in solution. It is also predicted that the topology of the retro-protein A three-helix bundle is that of the native protein A, rather than that corresponding to the mirror image of native protein A. Secondary structure elements in the retro-protein do not exactly match their counterparts in the original protein structure; however, the amino acid side chain contract pattern of the hydrophobic core is partly conserved. %B Protein Engineering %V 9 %P 5–14 %8 jan %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9053902 %0 Journal Article %J Proteins %D 1996 %T Folding simulations and computer redesign of protein A three-helix bundle motifs %A Krzysztof A. Olszewski %A Andrzej Koliński %A Jeffrey Skolnick %K Computer Simulation %K Monte Carlo Method %K Mutation %K Protein Conformation %K Protein Folding %K Staphylococcal Protein A %K Staphylococcal Protein A: chemistry %X In solution, the B domain of protein A from Staphylococcus aureus (B domain) possesses a three-helix bundle structure. This simple motif has been previously reproduced by Kolinski and Skolnick (Proteins 18: 353-366, 1994) using a reduced representation lattice model of proteins with a statistical interaction scheme. In this paper, an improved version of the potential has been used, and the robustness of this result has been tested by folding from the random state a set of three-helix bundle proteins that are highly homologous to the B domain of protein A. Furthermore, an attempt to redesign the B domain native structure to its topological mirror image fold has been made by multiple mutations of the hydrophobic core and the turn region between helices I and II. A sieve method for scanning a large set of mutations to search for this desired property has been proposed. It has been shown that mutations of native B domain hydrophobic core do not introduce significant changes in the protein motif. Mutations in the turn region were also very conservative; nevertheless, a few mutants acquired the desired topological mirror image motif. A set of all atom models of the most probable mutant was reconstructed from the reduced models and refined using a molecular dynamics algorithm in the presence of water. The packing of all atom structures obtained corroborates the lattice model results. We conclude that the change in the handedness of the turn induced by the mutations, augmented by the repacking of hydrophobic core and the additional burial of the second helix N-cap side chain, are responsible for the predicted preferential adoption of the mirror image structure. %B Proteins %V 25 %P 286–299 %8 jul %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8844865 %R 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0134(199607)25:3<286::AID-PROT2>3.0.CO;2-E