"INDUSTRIAL" SCREENING AND PREDICTION OF BIOACTIVE MOLECULES

CARLOS BLOCH JR.(1)

(1)Laboratório de Espectrometria de Massa; Embrapa Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia.

A novel methodology for antimicrobial and other bioactive peptide screening have been described. A set of 3D plots based on Physical-Chemical properties is initially used to identify, in the 3D space, the specific volume in which a given biological activity may be represented. Each activity volume in the 3D space is primarily determined by its respective cluster of amino acid sequences obtained from natural occurring peptides with well established biological functions and graphically represented as Physical-Chemistry spheres. Entire proteins (or even genomes) are randomly digested in silico producing peptides that can be analyzed according to their clustering tendencies into each specific activity volume in the 3D space plot. The putative function attributed to a given amino acid sequence must be evaluated by in vitro and in vivo assays after chemical synthesis and/or gene expression of the peptides. Practical examples of this technique will be given as well as biological activity evaluations.

CORRESPONDENCE TO: E-mail: cbloch@cenargen.embrapa.br