scholarly journals ELM—the eukaryotic linear motif resource in 2020

Author(s):  
Manjeet Kumar ◽  
Marc Gouw ◽  
Sushama Michael ◽  
Hugo Sámano-Sánchez ◽  
Rita Pancsa ◽  
...  

Abstract The eukaryotic linear motif (ELM) resource is a repository of manually curated experimentally validated short linear motifs (SLiMs). Since the initial release almost 20 years ago, ELM has become an indispensable resource for the molecular biology community for investigating functional regions in many proteins. In this update, we have added 21 novel motif classes, made major revisions to 12 motif classes and added >400 new instances mostly focused on DNA damage, the cytoskeleton, SH2-binding phosphotyrosine motifs and motif mimicry by pathogenic bacterial effector proteins. The current release of the ELM database contains 289 motif classes and 3523 individual protein motif instances manually curated from 3467 scientific publications. ELM is available at: http://elm.eu.org.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (665) ◽  
pp. eabd0334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bálint Mészáros ◽  
Hugo Sámano-Sánchez ◽  
Jesús Alvarado-Valverde ◽  
Jelena Čalyševa ◽  
Elizabeth Martínez-Pérez ◽  
...  

The first reported receptor for SARS-CoV-2 on host cells was the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). However, the viral spike protein also has an RGD motif, suggesting that cell surface integrins may be co-receptors. We examined the sequences of ACE2 and integrins with the Eukaryotic Linear Motif (ELM) resource and identified candidate short linear motifs (SLiMs) in their short, unstructured, cytosolic tails with potential roles in endocytosis, membrane dynamics, autophagy, cytoskeleton, and cell signaling. These SLiM candidates are highly conserved in vertebrates and may interact with the μ2 subunit of the endocytosis-associated AP2 adaptor complex, as well as with various protein domains (namely, I-BAR, LC3, PDZ, PTB, and SH2) found in human signaling and regulatory proteins. Several motifs overlap in the tail sequences, suggesting that they may act as molecular switches, such as in response to tyrosine phosphorylation status. Candidate LC3-interacting region (LIR) motifs are present in the tails of integrin β3 and ACE2, suggesting that these proteins could directly recruit autophagy components. Our findings identify several molecular links and testable hypotheses that could uncover mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 attachment, entry, and replication against which it may be possible to develop host-directed therapies that dampen viral infection and disease progression. Several of these SLiMs have now been validated to mediate the predicted peptide interactions.


Database ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Palopoli ◽  
J A Iserte ◽  
L B Chemes ◽  
C Marino-Buslje ◽  
G Parisi ◽  
...  

Abstract Modern biology produces data at a staggering rate. Yet, much of these biological data is still isolated in the text, figures, tables and supplementary materials of articles. As a result, biological information created at great expense is significantly underutilised. The protein motif biology field does not have sufficient resources to curate the corpus of motif-related literature and, to date, only a fraction of the available articles have been curated. In this study, we develop a set of tools and a web resource, ‘articles.ELM’, to rapidly identify the motif literature articles pertinent to a researcher’s interest. At the core of the resource is a manually curated set of about 8000 motif-related articles. These articles are automatically annotated with a range of relevant biological data allowing in-depth search functionality. Machine-learning article classification is used to group articles based on their similarity to manually curated motif classes in the Eukaryotic Linear Motif resource. Articles can also be manually classified within the resource. The ‘articles.ELM’ resource permits the rapid and accurate discovery of relevant motif articles thereby improving the visibility of motif literature and simplifying the recovery of valuable biological insights sequestered within scientific articles. Consequently, this web resource removes a critical bottleneck in scientific productivity for the motif biology field. Database URL: http://slim.icr.ac.uk/articles/


Toxins ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 290
Author(s):  
Caterina Peggion ◽  
Fiorella Tonello

Snake venom phospholipases A2 (PLA2s) have sequences and structures very similar to those of mammalian group I and II secretory PLA2s, but they possess many toxic properties, ranging from the inhibition of coagulation to the blockage of nerve transmission, and the induction of muscle necrosis. The biological properties of these proteins are not only due to their enzymatic activity, but also to protein–protein interactions which are still unidentified. Here, we compare sequence alignments of snake venom and mammalian PLA2s, grouped according to their structure and biological activity, looking for differences that can justify their different behavior. This bioinformatics analysis has evidenced three distinct regions, two central and one C-terminal, having amino acid compositions that distinguish the different categories of PLA2s. In these regions, we identified short linear motifs (SLiMs), peptide modules involved in protein–protein interactions, conserved in mammalian and not in snake venom PLA2s, or vice versa. The different content in the SLiMs of snake venom with respect to mammalian PLA2s may result in the formation of protein membrane complexes having a toxic activity, or in the formation of complexes whose activity cannot be blocked due to the lack of switches in the toxic PLA2s, as the motif recognized by the prolyl isomerase Pin1.


2011 ◽  
Vol 286 (22) ◽  
pp. 19229-19236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura A. Lindsey-Boltz ◽  
Aziz Sancar

The ataxia-telangiectasia mutated and RAD3-related (ATR) kinase initiates DNA damage signaling pathways in human cells after DNA damage such as that induced upon exposure to ultraviolet light by phosphorylating many effector proteins including the checkpoint kinase Chk1. The conventional view of ATR activation involves a universal signal consisting of genomic regions of replication protein A-covered single-stranded DNA. However, there are some indications that the ATR-mediated checkpoint can be activated by other mechanisms. Here, using the well defined Escherichia coli lac repressor/operator system, we have found that directly tethering the ATR activator topoisomerase IIβ-binding protein 1 (TopBP1) to DNA is sufficient to induce ATR phosphorylation of Chk1 in an in vitro system as well as in vivo in mammalian cells. In addition, we find synergistic activation of ATR phosphorylation of Chk1 when the mediator protein Claspin is also tethered to the DNA with TopBP1. Together, these findings indicate that crowding of checkpoint mediator proteins on DNA is sufficient to activate the ATR kinase.


Open Biology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 150063 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Short ◽  
Tessa Peterkin ◽  
Matthew Guille ◽  
Roger Patient ◽  
Colin Sharpe

Vertebrate NCoR-family co-repressors play central roles in the timing of embryo and stem cell differentiation by repressing the activity of a range of transcription factors. They interact with nuclear receptors using short linear motifs (SLiMs) termed co-repressor for nuclear receptor (CoRNR) boxes. Here, we identify the pathway leading to increasing co-repressor diversity across the deuterostomes. The final complement of CoRNR boxes arose in an ancestral cephalochordate, and was encoded in one large exon; the urochordates and vertebrates then split this region between 10 and 12 exons. In Xenopus , alternative splicing is prevalent in NCoR2, but absent in NCoR1. We show for one NCoR1 exon that alternative splicing can be recovered by a single point mutation, suggesting NCoR1 lost the capacity for alternative splicing. Analyses in Xenopus and zebrafish identify that cellular context, rather than gene sequence, predominantly determines species differences in alternative splicing. We identify a pathway to diversity for the NCoR family beginning with the addition of a SLiM, followed by gene duplication, the generation of alternatively spliced isoforms and their differential deployment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hraber ◽  
Paul E. O’Maille ◽  
Andrew Silberfarb ◽  
Katie Davis-Anderson ◽  
Nicholas Generous ◽  
...  

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manon Baëza ◽  
Séverine Viala ◽  
Marjorie Heim ◽  
Amélie Dard ◽  
Bruno Hudry ◽  
...  

Hox proteins are well-established developmental regulators that coordinate cell fate and morphogenesis throughout embryogenesis. In contrast, our knowledge of their specific molecular modes of action is limited to the interaction with few cofactors. Here, we show that Hox proteins are able to interact with a wide range of transcription factors in the live Drosophila embryo. In this context, specificity relies on a versatile usage of conserved short linear motifs (SLiMs), which, surprisingly, often restrains the interaction potential of Hox proteins. This novel buffering activity of SLiMs was observed in different tissues and found in Hox proteins from cnidarian to mouse species. Although these interactions remain to be analysed in the context of endogenous Hox regulatory activities, our observations challenge the traditional role assigned to SLiMs and provide an alternative concept to explain how Hox interactome specificity could be achieved during the embryonic development.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn Ramberger ◽  
Valeria Sapozhnikova ◽  
Elisabeth Kowenz-Leutz ◽  
Karin Zimmermann ◽  
Nathalie Nicot ◽  
...  

AbstractThe pioneering transcription factor C/EBPα coordinates cell fate and cell differentiation. C/EBPα represents an intrinsically disordered protein with multiple short linear motifs and extensive post-translational side chain modifications (PTM), reflecting its modularity and functional plasticity. Here, we combined arrayed peptide matrix screening (PRISMA) with biotin ligase proximity labeling proteomics (BioID) to generate a linear, isoform specific and PTM-dependent protein interaction map of C/EBPα in myeloid cells. The C/EBPα interactome comprises promiscuous and PTM-regulated interactions with protein machineries involved in gene expression, epigenetics, genome organization, DNA replication, RNA processing, and nuclear transport as the basis of functional C/EBPα plasticity. Protein interaction hotspots were identified that coincide with homologous conserved regions of the C/EBP family and revealed interaction motifs that score as molecular recognition features (MoRF). PTMs alter the interaction spectrum of multi-valent C/EBP-motifs to configure a multimodal transcription factor hub that allows interaction with multiple co-regulatory components, including BAF/SWI-SNF or Mediator complexes. Combining PRISMA and BioID acts as a powerful strategy to systematically explore the interactomes of intrinsically disordered proteins and their PTM-regulated, multimodal capacity.Key pointsIntegration of proximity labeling and arrayed peptide screen proteomics refines the interactome of C/EBPα isoformsHotspots of protein interactions in C/EBPα mostly occur in conserved short linear motifsInteractions of the BAF/SWI-SNF complex with C/EBPα are modulated by arginine methylation and isoform statusThe integrated experimental strategy suits systematic interactome studies of intrinsically disordered proteins


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