Predicting and testing
enzymatic activity
Charlie Harrison
Supervisors: Profs. John Ward &
Christine Orengo
Norcoclaurine
• Benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIQAs)
– group of plant secondary metabolites
• Includes many interesting compounds
• Common entry point: norcoclaurine
(S)-norcoclaurine
(R)-norcoclaurine
Norcoclaurine
• NorcoClaurine Synthase – NCS
• Five known examples from three different
species
• But BIQAs exist in many more species…
• Can we find more NCSs?
Main Project Aims
• Bioinformatics
– Identify uncharacterised proteins that are likely to
exhibit NCS activity
• Lab Work
– Express these proteins in E.coli and test
predictions
Bioinformatics
• Available data: sequence and structure
• Use these to predict function
Bioinformatics
Reproduced from Orengo, Jones &
Thornton 2003 with permission
Bioinformatics
• Structural data is better for identifying
functional homologues...
Bioinformatics
• Structural data is better for identifying
functional homologues...but is only available
for ~1% of sequences
• Use predictions of structural regions – Gene3D
• Starting point: Gene3D family of likely
structural relatives
• Sequence clustering
Bioinformatics
Lab Work
• Design and order the synthetic genes
Wait 3 weeks…
Lab Work
Results
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Results
Thanks