INVESTIGADORES
CHEHIN Rosana Nieves
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Fusión de membranas inducida por enzimas redox: evidencias biofísicas y bioinformáticas de un nuevo mecanismo de acción
Autor/es:
CÉSAR LUIS AVILA; MORERO, R.D; CHEHÍN RN
Lugar:
Quilmes- Argentina
Reunión:
Congreso; Biofisica de macromoléculas: aspectos estructurales e implicancias biológicas y biotecnológicas; 2007
Resumen:
A novel approach to elucidate the membrane fusion process induced by some soluble redox enzymes, which lack the classical fusion peptide, is presented. Studies on the requirements of several protein dehydrogenases to bind, aggregate and destabilize lipid bilayers were carried out by theoretical and experimental approaches. Each step of the fusion process, (i.e, protein-membrane binding, membrane apposition, membrane destabilization and lipid merging) was revised by both approaches. The obtained results reveal striking agreement between them and provide more evidence on the significance of the electrostatic properties as well as protein specific surface structural features. The electrostatic free energies obtained suggest to be a key driven force in the binding and aggregation process. However, the fusion process has other requirements apart from the capability to bind and aggregate vesicles. The present study suggests a relationship between positive crevices observed on the protein surface with membrane destabilization, an essential step of the fusion process. Bioinformatic tools for sequence and structure analysis combined with energy and electrostatics calculations provide a fairly detailed account of protein-induced membrane fusion process.