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In silico mutagenesis: a case study of the melanocortin 4 receptor.

FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology | 2009

The melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) is a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) and a key molecule in the regulation of energy homeostasis. At least 159 substitutions in the coding region of human MC4R (hMC4R) have been described experimentally; over 80 of those occur naturally, and many have been implicated in obesity. However, assessment of the presumably functionally essential residues remains incomplete. Here we have performed a complete in silico mutagenesis analysis to assess the functional essentiality of all possible nonnative point mutants in the entire hMC4R protein (332 residues). We applied SNAP, which is a method for quantifying functional consequences of single amino acid (AA) substitutions, to calculate the effects of all possible substitutions at each position in the hMC4R AA sequence. We compiled a mutability score that reflects the degree to which a particular residue is likely to be functionally important. We performed the same experiment for a paralogue human melanocortin receptor (hMC1R) and a mouse orthologue (mMC4R) in order to compare computational evaluations of highly related sequences. Three results are most salient: 1) our predictions largely agree with the available experimental annotations; 2) this analysis identified several AAs that are likely to be functionally critical, but have not yet been studied experimentally; and 3) the differential analysis of the receptors implicates a number of residues as specifically important to MC4Rs vs. other GPCRs, such as hMC1R.

Pubmed ID: 19417090 RIS Download

Research resources used in this publication

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Associated grants

  • Agency: NIDDK NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01 DK068152
  • Agency: NIDDK NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01-DK068152
  • Agency: NIDDK NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01-DK52431-15
  • Agency: NIDDK NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01 DK060540
  • Agency: NLM NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01 LM007329
  • Agency: NIDDK NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01 DK052431
  • Agency: NIDDK NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01-DK60540
  • Agency: NLM NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01-LM07329-01

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Suite of Nucleotide Analysis Programs (tool)

RRID:SCR_009399

THIS RESOURCE IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE, documented May 10, 2017. A pilot effort that has developed a centralized, web-based biospecimen locator that presents biospecimens collected and stored at participating Arizona hospitals and biospecimen banks, which are available for acquisition and use by researchers. Researchers may use this site to browse, search and request biospecimens to use in qualified studies. The development of the ABL was guided by the Arizona Biospecimen Consortium (ABC), a consortium of hospitals and medical centers in the Phoenix area, and is now being piloted by this Consortium under the direction of ABRC. You may browse by type (cells, fluid, molecular, tissue) or disease. Common data elements decided by the ABC Standards Committee, based on data elements on the National Cancer Institute''s (NCI''s) Common Biorepository Model (CBM), are displayed. These describe the minimum set of data elements that the NCI determined were most important for a researcher to see about a biospecimen. The ABL currently does not display information on whether or not clinical data is available to accompany the biospecimens. However, a requester has the ability to solicit clinical data in the request. Once a request is approved, the biospecimen provider will contact the requester to discuss the request (and the requester''s questions) before finalizing the invoice and shipment. The ABL is available to the public to browse. In order to request biospecimens from the ABL, the researcher will be required to submit the requested required information. Upon submission of the information, shipment of the requested biospecimen(s) will be dependent on the scientific and institutional review approval. Account required. Registration is open to everyone., documented September 29, 2016. A workbench tool to make existing population genetic software more accessible and to facilitate the integration of new tools for analyzing patterns of DNA sequence variation, within a phylogenetic context. Collectively, SNAP tools can serve as a bridge between theoretical and applied population genetic analysis. The exploration of DNA sequence variation for making inferences on evolutionary processes in populations requires the coordinated implementation of a Suite of Nucleotide Analysis Programs (SNAP), each bound by specific assumptions and limitations.

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