LILIANA LIGHEZAN*,**, A. NEAGU**^#, ADRIANA ISVORAN

*Faculty of Physics, West University of Timisoara, 4, Vasile Parvan blvd, Timișoara, Romania
** Department of Functional Sciences, Center for Modeling Biological Systems and Data Analysis, ”Victor Babeș” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timișoara, Romania
*** Faculty of Chemistry, Biology, Geography, West University of Timișoara, 16 Pestalozzi st, Timișoara, Romania

Using bioinformatics tools under the ExPasy server, in this paper we made a comparison between the ROF2 protein from Arabidopsis thaliana and its human homolog, the FKBP52 protein. The values of the global physicochemical parameters of these proteins are comparable, despite of their low global similarity of the sequences. The first peptidyl prolyl cis-trans isomerase domains (PPI1) of the two proteins display the highest sequence similarity. The tetratricopeptide repeats (TPR) involved in protein-protein binding of both proteins also share a relatively high similarity. The results of this study indicate a high structural and functional similarity between the two proteins. Since Arabidopsis thaliana is used as a model organism for studying cellular mechanisms involved in human neurodegenerative diseases (which involve FKBP52), our study suggests that ROF2 might play an important role in understanding human neuropathologies.

Corresponding author’s e-mail: neagu@umft.ro

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