From the structure and function to the design of modular proteins

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 96.0056

Key words (English)

Modulins; coiled-coil; cartilage oligomeric matrix protein COMP; cartilage matrix protein CMF /matrilin; oligomerization

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: BIO4CT960662

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 4. Frame Research Programme - 4.1 Biotechnology

Short description (English)

See abstract

Partners and International Organizations (English)

Coordinator: Centre national de la recherche scientifique (F)

Abstract (English)

Our contribution to the EU project was the development of oligomerization domains, which were used by us and by other groups for the design of modular proteins by protein engineering. We expressed the five-stranded coiled-coil domain of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) and the three-stranded coiled-coil domain of matrilin/CMP in E-coli and in mammalian cells an solved the structure of both domains by x-ray crystallography or by NMR spectroscopy.

The domains were then fused with E-cadherin and with cell adhesion receptors. In a Swiss group in Lausanne the COMP domain was used to improve the inhibitory activity of FasL and CD4OL. Very recently we used a new trimeric oligomerization domain, which does not belong to the family of coiled-coil domains for effective stabilization of short collagen triple helices and publications on this new domain are in progress.

The future potential of our work is the use of the oligomerization domains for changing the properties of functional proteins in protein design.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 96.0056