The downstream prion-like protein (doppel, or Dpl) is a paralog of the cellular prion protein, PrP(C). The two proteins have approximately 25% sequence identity, but seem to have distinct physiologic roles. Unlike PrP(C), Dpl does not support prion replication; instead, overexpression of Dpl in the brain seems to cause a completely different neurodegenerative disease ...
The downstream prion-like protein (doppel, or Dpl) is a paralog of the cellular prion protein, PrP(C). The two proteins have approximately 25% sequence identity, but seem to have distinct physiologic roles. Unlike PrP(C), Dpl does not support prion replication; instead, overexpression of Dpl in the brain seems to cause a completely different neurodegenerative disease. We report the solution structure of a fragment of recombinant mouse Dpl (residues 26-157) containing a globular domain with three helices and a small amount of beta-structure. Overall, the topology of Dpl is very similar to that of PrP(C). Significant differences include a marked kink in one of the helices in Dpl, and a different orientation of the two short beta-strands. Although the two proteins most likely arose through duplication of a single ancestral gene, the relationship is now so distant that only the structures retain similarity; the functions have diversified along with the sequence.
Related Citations:
Ataxia in Prion Protein (PrP)-Deficient Mice is Associated with Upregulation of the Novel PrP-like Protein Doppel Moore, R.C., Lee, I.Y., Silverman, G.L., Harrison, P.M., Strome, R., Heinrich, C., Karunaratne, A., Pasternak, S.H., Chishti, M.A., Liang, Y., Mastrangelo, P., Wang, K., Smit, A.F., Katamine, S., Carlson, G.A., Cohen, F.E., Prusiner, S.B., Melton, D.W., Tremblay, P., Hood, L.E., Westaway, D. (1999) J Mol Biol 292: 797
Organizational Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Biology and Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
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