From Protein Comparison to Non-Ribosomal Code
Understand how protein sequences can be compared using alignment methods to identify conserved cores and variable regions. Explore how these techniques helped infer the non-ribosomal code, which links specific amino acid signatures to functional peptide synthesis domains. This lesson highlights the complexities of sequence alignment and pattern discovery in biological data analysis.
We'll cover the following...
Inferring the non-ribosomal code
Fortunately, Marahiel already knew the amino acid sequences of some A-domains, along with the amino acids that they add to the growing peptide. Below are three of these A-domains (taken from three different bacteria), which code for aspartic acid (Asp), ornithine (Orn), and valine (Val), respectively. In the interest of space, we’ll show you only short fragments taken from the three A-domains.
STOP and Think: You now have a portion of the data that Marahiel had in 1999 when he discovered the non-ribosomal ...