Characterization as well as prediction of secondary and tertiary structure of hypothetical proteins from their amino acid sequences uploaded in databases by in silico approach are the critical issues in computational biology. Bacillus cereus, a foodborne pathogen that causes gastrointestinal illness, possesses a wide range of proteins, many of which are still uncharacterized. Hence, the current study was conducted to reveal the physicochemical characteristics and structures of an uncharacterized protein BCRIVMBC845_02328 of B. cereus. Following the common flowchart of characterizing a hypothetical protein, several sophisticated computerized tools e.g., ExPASy Protparam, CD Search, SOPMA, PSIPRED, HHpred, etc. were employed to discover the functions and structures of BCRIVMBC845_02328. After delineating the secondary and tertiary structures of the protein, some quality evaluating tools e.g., PROCHECK, ProSA-web etc. were performed to assess the structures and later the active site was identified also by CASTp v.3.0. The protein contains more positively charged residues than negatively charged residues and a high aliphatic index value which make the protein more stable. The 2D and 3D structures modelled by several bioinformatics tools ensured that the protein has a domain in the N-terminal which indicates that it is a functional protein. Moreover, active site was found in the protein where ligand could bind. The study was aimed to unveil the features and structures of an uncharacterized protein BCRIVMBC845_02328 of B. cereus which can be a therapeutic target for development of drugs against the bacterium.
Keywords: BCRIVMBC845_02328, hypothetical protein, functional annotation, Bacillus cereus, bioinformatics
30-Jun-2023
