Characterizing Protease Specificity: How Many Substrates Do We Need?

Calculation of cleavage entropies allows to quantify, map and compare protease substrate specificity by an information entropy based approach. The metric intrinsically depends on the number of experimentally determined substrates (data points). Thus a statistical analysis of its numerical stability...

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Main Authors: Michael Schauperl, Julian E Fuchs, Birgit J Waldner, Roland G Huber, Christian Kramer, Klaus R Liedl
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2015-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4641643?pdf=render
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author Michael Schauperl
Julian E Fuchs
Birgit J Waldner
Roland G Huber
Christian Kramer
Klaus R Liedl
author_facet Michael Schauperl
Julian E Fuchs
Birgit J Waldner
Roland G Huber
Christian Kramer
Klaus R Liedl
author_sort Michael Schauperl
collection DOAJ
description Calculation of cleavage entropies allows to quantify, map and compare protease substrate specificity by an information entropy based approach. The metric intrinsically depends on the number of experimentally determined substrates (data points). Thus a statistical analysis of its numerical stability is crucial to estimate the systematic error made by estimating specificity based on a limited number of substrates. In this contribution, we show the mathematical basis for estimating the uncertainty in cleavage entropies. Sets of cleavage entropies are calculated using experimental cleavage data and modeled extreme cases. By analyzing the underlying mathematics and applying statistical tools, a linear dependence of the metric in respect to 1/n was found. This allows us to extrapolate the values to an infinite number of samples and to estimate the errors. Analyzing the errors, a minimum number of 30 substrates was found to be necessary to characterize substrate specificity, in terms of amino acid variability, for a protease (S4-S4') with an uncertainty of 5 percent. Therefore, we encourage experimental researchers in the protease field to record specificity profiles of novel proteases aiming to identify at least 30 peptide substrates of maximum sequence diversity. We expect a full characterization of protease specificity helpful to rationalize biological functions of proteases and to assist rational drug design.
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spelling doaj.art-02d0dfd1e4e54a54b322f7916d1d77102022-12-22T01:15:26ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-011011e014265810.1371/journal.pone.0142658Characterizing Protease Specificity: How Many Substrates Do We Need?Michael SchauperlJulian E FuchsBirgit J WaldnerRoland G HuberChristian KramerKlaus R LiedlCalculation of cleavage entropies allows to quantify, map and compare protease substrate specificity by an information entropy based approach. The metric intrinsically depends on the number of experimentally determined substrates (data points). Thus a statistical analysis of its numerical stability is crucial to estimate the systematic error made by estimating specificity based on a limited number of substrates. In this contribution, we show the mathematical basis for estimating the uncertainty in cleavage entropies. Sets of cleavage entropies are calculated using experimental cleavage data and modeled extreme cases. By analyzing the underlying mathematics and applying statistical tools, a linear dependence of the metric in respect to 1/n was found. This allows us to extrapolate the values to an infinite number of samples and to estimate the errors. Analyzing the errors, a minimum number of 30 substrates was found to be necessary to characterize substrate specificity, in terms of amino acid variability, for a protease (S4-S4') with an uncertainty of 5 percent. Therefore, we encourage experimental researchers in the protease field to record specificity profiles of novel proteases aiming to identify at least 30 peptide substrates of maximum sequence diversity. We expect a full characterization of protease specificity helpful to rationalize biological functions of proteases and to assist rational drug design.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4641643?pdf=render
spellingShingle Michael Schauperl
Julian E Fuchs
Birgit J Waldner
Roland G Huber
Christian Kramer
Klaus R Liedl
Characterizing Protease Specificity: How Many Substrates Do We Need?
PLoS ONE
title Characterizing Protease Specificity: How Many Substrates Do We Need?
title_full Characterizing Protease Specificity: How Many Substrates Do We Need?
title_fullStr Characterizing Protease Specificity: How Many Substrates Do We Need?
title_full_unstemmed Characterizing Protease Specificity: How Many Substrates Do We Need?
title_short Characterizing Protease Specificity: How Many Substrates Do We Need?
title_sort characterizing protease specificity how many substrates do we need
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4641643?pdf=render
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