A peptide derived from the C-terminal part of a plant cysteine protease folds into a stack of two beta-hairpins, a scaffold present in the emerging family of granulin-like growth factors.
Tolkatchev, D., Xu, P., Ni, F.(2001) J Pept Res 57: 227-233
- PubMed: 11298924 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-3011.2001.00828.x
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
1FWO - PubMed Abstract: 
A 35 amino acid residue peptide corresponding to the N-terminal subdomain of the granulin-like repeat from rice oryzain beta was synthesized and regioselectively oxidized to produce a species with a [1-3, 2-4] disulfide-pairing pattern. The resulting peptide was studied in solution using NMR and was shown to adopt the tertiary topology of a stack of two beta-hairpins found in the emerging family of granulin-like growth factors. Because of the longer second beta-hairpin, the overall conformation of the peptide is somewhat more flexible than that of its well-structured carp granulin-1 analog. Except for the cysteine alignment, there is very little sequence homology between granulin-like growth factors from the animal kingdom and the granulin-like repeats at the C-termini of plant cysteine proteases. Therefore, the stack of two beta-hairpins may be a conserved three-dimensional organization of the granulin-like repeats from evolutionary distant sources with a significant role in specific protein-protein interactions.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Montreal Joint Centre for Structural Biology, Biotechnology Research Institute, National Research Council of Canada, Québec.