Screpyard: an online resource for disulfide-stabilised tandem repeat peptides — ASN Events

Screpyard: an online resource for disulfide-stabilised tandem repeat peptides (#288)

Junyu Liu 1 , Michael Maxwell 1 , Theo Crawford 1 , Thom Cuddihy 2 3 , Madeline Bassetti 2 , Cameron Hyde 2 4 , Eivind Undheim 1 5 6 , Mehdi Mobli 1
  1. Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QUEENSLAND, Australia
  2. Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation Ltd, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  3. Centre for Clinical Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  4. University of sunshine coast, Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia
  5. Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
  6. Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Bivalency has evolved as a natural strategy for enhancing the binding strength of protein-protein interactions. Although bivalent antibodies readily occur in nature, engineering bivalent peptides has had limited success, indicating an incomplete understanding of this property. The discovery of several bivalent venom peptides, each containing two homologous and independently folded domains arranged in a tandem repeat architecture, offers a unique opportunity to comprehensively grasp the underlying design principles of bivalency and the emergence of natural bivalent ligands. In previous work, we categorized these bivalent venom peptides into a broader class known as secreted cysteine-rich repeat-proteins (SCREPs). Here, we introduce an online resource called ScrepYard, intended to aid researchers in exploring recognized SCREP sequences of interest and facilitating the characterization of this emerging biomolecular class. ScrepYard compiles information about SCREP component domains, architecture, and taxonomy. Analyzing entries within ScrepYard unveils the prevalence and divergence of SCREPs. These analyses also suggests that ScrepYard might contain entries exhibiting remarkable properties that could position SCREPs as promising drug leads and molecular probes. ScrepYard serves as a valuable tool not only to enhance our understanding of bivalency but also as a useful resource for mining bioactive peptides.

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