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Multiple Sequence Alignment 231<br />

19<br />

Exploring Familial Relationships Using Multiple<br />

Sequence Alignment<br />

Aalim M. Weljie and Jaap Heringa<br />

1. Introduction<br />

Over the course of the past 30 yr, a multitude of calcium-binding proteins<br />

has been discovered that employ several unique structural motifs for calciumion<br />

binding. The first prominent family identified bound calcium via a helixloop-helix<br />

structural motif, and was coined the EF-hand binding motif, as it<br />

occurs between the E and F helices of carp parvalbumin (1). Today, the EF-hand<br />

calcium-binding family is ubiquitous, with members implicated in varied roles<br />

such as calcium signaling cell response and calcium storage. More recently,<br />

other calcium-binding motifs such as those found in annexin repeats (2), C2<br />

domain proteins (3), and EGF domain proteins (4) have been identified. Table 1<br />

summarizes the characteristic amino acid sequence properties of each of these<br />

domains as provided in the PROSITE protein motif recognition database (5).<br />

Within each of these four families, there is a varying amount of primary<br />

sequence diversity that can be tolerated while maintaining calcium-binding<br />

properties. In addition, these motifs are often found within proteins as subunits,<br />

in conjunction with other functional protein domains. Such functionality<br />

is especially prevalent in eukaryotic EF-hand and C2-domain families, which<br />

often use calcium-binding in response to intracellular calcium-ion cascades as<br />

a means of cell signaling.<br />

Given the vast number of known sequences and diversity of these protein<br />

families, the obvious and popular method to make sense of the data has been to<br />

examine these proteins via sequence alignments. Much effort has been given to<br />

classification and grouping of each of these families into subfamilies and/or<br />

ancestral relationships. In particular, the EF family has been subject to exten-<br />

From: Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 173:<br />

<strong>Calcium</strong>-<strong>Binding</strong> <strong>Protein</strong> <strong>Protocols</strong>, Vol. 2: Methods and Techniques<br />

Edited by: H. J. Vogel © Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ<br />

231

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