Genomics Inform.  2016 Sep;14(3):125-135. 10.5808/GI.2016.14.3.125.

Sequence Analysis of Hypothetical Proteins from Helicobacter pylori 26695 to Identify Potential Virulence Factors

• Naqvi AA
• Anjum F
• Khan FI
• Islam A
• Ahmad F
• Hassan MI

• KMID: 2353664
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5808/GI.2016.14.3.125

Abstract

Helicobacter pylori is a Gram-negative bacteria that is responsible for gastritis in human. Its spiral flagellated body helps in locomotion and colonization in the host environment. It is capable of living in the highly acidic environment of the stomach with the help of acid adaptive genes. The genome of H. pylori 26695 strain contains 1,555 coding genes that encode 1,445 proteins. Out of these, 340 proteins are characterized as hypothetical proteins (HP). This study involves extensive analysis of the HPs using an established pipeline which comprises various bioinformatics tools and databases to find out probable functions of the HPs and identification of virulence factors. After extensive analysis of all the 340 HPs, we found that 104 HPs are showing characteristic similarities with the proteins with known functions. Thus, on the basis of such similarities, we assigned probable functions to 104 HPs with high confidence and precision. All the predicted HPs contain representative members of diverse functional classes of proteins such as enzymes, transporters, binding proteins, regulatory proteins, proteins involved in cellular processes and other proteins with miscellaneous functions. Therefore, we classified 104 HPs into aforementioned functional groups. During the virulence factors analysis of the HPs, we found 11 HPs are showing significant virulence. The identification of virulence proteins with the help their predicted functions may pave the way for drug target estimation and development of effective drug to counter the activity of that protein.

Keyword

drug discovery; drug target; Helicobacter pylori; hypothetical proteins; pathogenesis; virulence

MeSH Terms

Carrier Proteins
Clinical Coding
Colon
Computational Biology
Drug Discovery
Gastritis
Genome
Gram-Negative Bacteria
Helicobacter pylori*
Helicobacter*
Humans
Locomotion
Sequence Analysis*
Stomach
Virulence Factors*
Virulence*
Carrier Proteins
Virulence Factors