In silico Identification of Ergosterol as a Novel

Authors: Joyeeta Mitra Priyanka Narad Abhishek Sengupta P D Sharma P K Paul

Publish Date: 2015/08/08

Volume: 8, Issue: 3, Pages: 229-240

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Abstract

RuBisCO EC 41139 a key enzyme found in stroma of chloroplast is important for fixing atmospheric CO2 in plants Alterations in the activity of RuBisCO could influence photosynthetic yield Therefore to understand the activity of the protein knowledge about its structure is pertinent Though the structure of Nicotiana RuBisCO has been modeled the structure of tomato RuBisCO is still unknown RuBisCO extracted from chloroplasts of tomato leaves was subjected to MALDITOF–TOF followed by Mascot Search The protein sequence based on gene identification numbers was subjected to in silico model construction characterization and docking studies The primary structure analysis revealed that protein was stable neutral hydrophilic and has an acidic pI The result though indicates a 90  homology with other members of Solanaceae but differs from the structure of Arabidopsis RuBisCO Different ligands were docked to assess the activity of RuBisCO against these metabolite components Out of the number of modulators tested ergosterol had the maximum affinity E = −24808 with RuBisCO Ergosterol is a major cell wall component of fungi and has not been reported to be naturally found in plants It is a known immune elicitor in plants The current study throws light on its role in affecting RuBisCO activity in plants thereby bringing changes in the photosynthetic rateThe authors express their sincere thanks to Amity Institute of Biotechnology Amity University Uttar Pradesh NOIDA India for providing the necessary infrastructural facilities and DSTINSPIRE India for providing Senior Research Fellowship to the first author The authors also express their gratitude to AIRF JNU New Delhi India for permitting to perform MALDITOF analysis in their department

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