PreprintCited by 105Protein Structure and DynamicsEnzyme Structure and FunctionMachine Learning in Bioinformatics

Systematic discovery of protein interaction interfaces using AlphaFold and experimental validation

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Lee, Chop Yan, Hubrich, Dalmira, Varga, Julia K., Schäfer, Christian, Welzel, Mareen, Schumbera, Eric, Đokić, Milena, Strom, Joelle M. +8 more·2023·Molecular Systems Biology

Preprint — published as 10.1038/s44320-023-00005-6 · Paper page

Abstract

Structural resolution of protein interactions enables mechanistic and functional studies as well as interpretation of disease variants. However, structural data is still missing for most protein interactions because we lack computational and experimental tools at scale. We thoroughly assessed AlphaFold-Multimer accuracy for structure prediction of interactions involving folded domains binding to short linear motifs from the ELM database. The structure predictions were highly sensitive but not very specific when using small protein fragments. Sensitivity decreased substantially when using long protein fragments or full length proteins with intrinsically disordered regions. We delineated a fragmentation strategy to optimize sensitivity and applied it to interactions between proteins associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. This enabled prediction of highly confident and likely disease-related novel interfaces, but also resulted in many high scoring false positive predictions. Experiments supported predicted interfaces between CREBZF-HCFC1, FBXO23-STX1B, STX1B-VAMP2, ESRRG-PSMC5, PEX3-PEX19, PEX3-PEX16, and SNRPB-GIGYF1 providing novel molecular insights for diverse biological processes. Our work highlights exciting perspectives, but also reveals clear limitations and the need for future developments to maximize the power of Alphafold-Multimer for interface predictions.

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Authors
Lee, C. Y., Hubrich, D., Varga, J. K., Schäfer, C., Welzel, M., Schumbera, E., Đokić, M., Strom, J. M., Schönfeld, J., Geist, J. L., Polat, F., Gibson, T. J., Keller Valsecchi, C. I., Kumar, M., Schueler-Furman, O., & Luck, K.
Affiliations
  • Institute of Molecular Biology (DE)
  • Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
  • European Molecular Biology Laboratory (DE)
Corresponding author
Luck, Katja
Venue
Molecular Systems Biology
Publisher
openRxiv
Published
2023-08-09
Volume
20
Issue
2
Pages
75-97
ISSN
1744-4292 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4390876228
Cited by
105
References
81
Citations by year
2026: 36 · 2025: 46 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 3
FWCI
13.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Molecular Systems Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • European Commission (HORIZON2020, 860517)
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB1551, 464588647, LU2568/1–1)
  • Israel Science Foundation (301/2021)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Structure and Dynamics
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Enzyme Structure and Function
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Machine Learning in Bioinformatics
Keywords
protein-protein interfaces, AlphaFold-Multimer, intrinsically disordered regions, short linear motifs, neurodevelopmental disorders
MeSH terms
Carrier Proteins, Humans, Membrane Proteins, Proteins

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