Shikimate Kinase of Yersinia pestis: A Sequence, Structural and Functional Analysis

Abstract

Yersinia pestis, the causative organism of Plague, is widely recognized as a potential bioterrorism threat. Due to the absence of homologs in human, Shikimate Kinase (SK) is considered as an excellent drug target in several bacterial and protozoan parasites. Ample literature evidences confirm the suitability of this protein as a good target. Therefore, Shikimate Kinase of Shikimate pathway in Yersinia pestis represents an attractive drug target. In the present study, a clustering approach was undertaken to select the proper representative for Shikimate Kinase sequences belonging to Yersinia pestis for structure determination. Three-dimensional models of the enzyme for KFB61218.1 (SK1), EFA47400.1 (SK2) and WP_016255950.1 (SK3) were generated using a comparative molecular modeling approach where structures were developed using the single specific template as well as multiple closely associated templates. The structures of Shikimate Kinase developed using comparative modeling were evaluated for stereochemical quality using various structural validation tools. Results from structural assessment tools indicated the reasonably good quality of models.

Structural analysis of the Babesia microti thioredoxin reductase: a potential drug target for babesiosis treatment

“…Comparative modeling or homology modeling is an alternate method that aid in deriving structural insight about protein in absence of experimentally derived structure. Homology modeling has been used successfully for providing structural information of key enzymes in various instances in important human pathogens in past [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. The enzyme of Babesia has pronounced and significant differences with the human counterpart.…”

Epigenetics Changes in Breast Cancer: Current Aspects in India

“…Advanced techniques are being utilized to understand various disease conditions, chronological alteration of disease causes for various life threatening diseases including infectious diseases such as malaria [33][34][35][36], different bacterial diseases such as tuberculosis and others [37][38][39], viral diseases such as Dengue, Chikungunya, West Nile etc. [40,41], diabetes [42] and obviously different types of cancers.…”