Signal transduction

A systematic lattice methodology developed to calculate DNA-protein binding in gene regulation is also applicable to study signal transduction on a membrane. In a project with Avinoam Ben-Shaul and Daniel Harries, we have developed a model for an unstructured protein MARCKS, which binds a multicomponent lipid membrane, sequesters lipids-precursors of second messengers, and unbinds and releases them upon phosphorylation (Teif et al., 2008; Teif et al., 2009). This model descibes biding of an unstructured signal protein/peptide, but may be also extended to include multiprotein assembly on the membrane. This could help in studies of, for example, the membrane-cytoskeleton attachment and its regulation by binding of small ligands such as ATP and Ca2+. Multilayer matrix models may be also applicable to lipid-templated amyloid-type protein fibril formation.