HECTAR: A method to predict subcellular targeting in heterokonts

Background: The heterokonts are a particularly interesting group of eukaryotic organisms; they include many key species of planktonic and coastal algae and several important pathogens. To understand the biology of these organisms, it is necessary to be able to predict the subcellular localisation of their proteins but this is not straightforward, particularly in photosynthetic heterokonts which possess a complex chloroplast, acquired as the result of a secondary endosymbiosis. This is because the bipartite target peptides that deliver proteins to these chloroplasts can be easily confused with the signal peptides of secreted proteins, causing currently available algorithms to make erroneous predictions. HECTAR, a subcellular targeting prediction method which takes into account the specific properties of heterokont proteins, has been developed to address this problem. Results: HECTAR is a statistical prediction method designed to assign proteins to five different categories of subcellul...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Bernhard Gschloessl, Yann Guermeur, J. Mark Cock
• Keywords: BMCBI 2008, Peptide, Proteins, Subcellular Localisation