In Silico Analysis of Phylogeny, Structure, and Function of Flavohemoproteins from Metagenomic Data

Abstract

In this study, flavohemoproteins from protist, bacterial and fungal sources as well those available in metagenome data have been characterized using standard bioinformatics tools in order to study their phylogenetic relationships, three-dimensional structure and functional parameters. 5 clusters of metagenomic proteins were identified which showed the closest neighbors with known genera. The average length of flavohemoprotein in the data set was found to be 414 residues. The average pI and molecular weight (MW) was 6.72 and 47.28 kDa respectively in all strains including metagenome sequences. Flavohemoproteins showed similar amino acid composition among different organisms including proteins from metagenomic data and from known genera, with relative higher abundance of amino acids Ala and Leu. The secondary structure prediction results revealed that the enzymes are dominated by α-helices and random coils. Tertiary structure analysis revealed the presence of three ligand binding sites for Heme, FAD and NAD. The computational analysis of flavohemoproteins from metagenomic data done in this study can provide useful sequence and structural information which can be further used for metaproteomic analysis in search for novel flavohemoprotein enzymes from the environment.