MultitaskProtDB: a database of multitasking proteins

Abstract

We have compiled MultitaskProtDB, available online at http://wallace.uab.es/multitask, to provide a repository where the many multitasking proteins found in the literature can be stored. Multitasking or moonlighting is the capability of some proteins to execute two or more biological functions. Usually, multitasking proteins are experimentally revealed by serendipity. This ability of proteins to perform multitasking functions helps us to understand one of the ways used by cells to perform many complex functions with a limited number of genes. Even so, the study of this phenomenon is complex because, among other things, there is no database of moonlighting proteins. The existence of such a tool facilitates the collection and dissemination of these important data. This work reports the database, MultitaskProtDB, which is designed as a friendly user web page containing >288 multitasking proteins with their NCBI and UniProt accession numbers, canonical and additional biological functions, monomeric/oligomeric states, PDB codes when available and bibliographic references. This database also serves to gain insight into some characteristics of multitasking proteins such as frequencies of the different pairs of functions, phylogenetic conservation and so forth.

Genome-scale prediction of moonlighting proteins using diverse protein association information

“…This observation is consistent with previous reports that many MPs were known primarily as enzymes when their secondary function was discovered (Hern andez et al, 2014;Jeffery, 2003;Mani et al, 2014).…”

“…Studies suggest significant impacts of MPs in diseases and disorders (Ov adi, 2011;Sriram et al, 2005) as well as roles in important biochemical pathways (Jeffery, 2004). Despite the potential abundance of MPs in various genomes and their important roles in pathways and disease developments, the size of existing databases (Hern andez et al, 2014;Mani et al, 2014) that contain experimentally confirmed MPs is still too small to obtain a comprehensive picture of the cellular mechanisms underlying their functional diversity. This quantitative insufficiency is due in large part to the tendency for the additional function of these proteins to be found serendipitously in the course of unrelated experiments.…”

Genome-scale identification and characterization of moonlighting proteins

“…The identified 33 moonlighting proteins (Table 1) and 10 multi-domain multi-function proteins ( Table 2) do not have many overlap with the MoonProt database [79] and MultitaskProtDB [80]. Only two (PepA and DegP) in Table 1 and one (NadR) in Table 2 were found in the two databases.…”

The Expanding Landscape of Moonlighting Proteins in Yeasts

“…The development of databases specifically devoted to moonlighting proteins will increase the accessibility of data on such proteins and facilitate the tracking of new additions to this category. Two such databases have recently been made available, Moonprot (5) and MultitaskProtDB (17). When it appeared, the first one, searchable at http://www .moonlightingproteins.org, presented information on more than 200 moonlighting proteins experimentally verified to behave as such; at its publication, the second one, accessible at http://wallace .uab.es/multitask, offered different information on about 300 multitasking proteins.…”

“…It may be noted that the word "moonlighting" had been used already in 1978 by Freedman to refer to multifunctional proteins in an article entitled "Moonlighting Molecules" (16). Moonlighting proteins are found in diverse organisms, and current dedicated databases list several hundred of them, distributed among the different biological kingdoms (5,17). Their noncanonical roles cover a bewildering array of functions such as control of transcription, protection of DNA, assembly of organelles, chaperoning, splicing of introns, or binding to plasminogen (12,(18)(19)(20).…”