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MSc Exit Seminar – Mitchell Li Cheong Man (Moses lab)
December 20, 2016 @ 2:10 pm - 2:40 pm
MSc Exit Seminar
Tuesday December 20th, 2:10 pm – Earth Sciences Centre, Rm. 3087
Mitchell Li Cheong Man (Moses lab)
“Functional Analysis of Short Linear Motifs in Intrinsically Disordered Regions”
Abstract
Short linear motifs (SLiMs) are regulatory binding sites that are involved in signalling and protein regulation. SLiMs are often found in intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) which are rapidly evolving regions that do not adopt stable tertiary conformations. Despite their prevalence throughout the proteome, many SLiMs still remain unknown. Predicting novel SLiMs, determining their function, understanding how they cooperate and evolved are ongoing endeavours.
The goal of this thesis is to address the function and properties of SLiMs and how they evolved, using bioinformatics methods and evolutionary models. To further examine the role of SLiMs in signal transduction, I show deletion of predicted SLiMs (pSLiMs) have a broad range of quantitative effects on signalling pathway output. Next, to explore what properties are important in substrate recognition, I show that the combination and order of SLiMs can predict target specificity for Clb5, the S phase cyclin. Lastly, using a comparative phylogenetic approach to investigate the evolution of SLiMs, I provide evidence that phosphorylation and docking sites coevolved.