An In Silico Approach for Characterization of an Acetyltransfarase Protein from Shigella flexneri Serotype 5b (strain 8401)

Shigella flexneri serotype 5b (strain 8401) is a gram-negative, non-sporulating and facultative anaerobic bacteria. A hypothetical protein yjaB of these bacteria, consisting of 147 residues was picked out for in silico analysis. Many bioinformatic tools were used to predict the 3D structure and function of this protein. Subcellular localization predictions shows it is a cytoplasmic protein. Sequence similarity was brought in through Protein Data Bank and non-redundant database using BLASTp program of NCBI and a search for templates revealed that yjaB shares 97% homology to a protein of Escherichia coli, indicating this protein is evolutionary conserved and was found with acetyltransfarase. Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) was used to locate the conserved residues. Three-dimensional structures and the secondary structures were predicted. The authorization of the threedimensional structure was obtained through PROCHECK and QMEAN6 programs. Root mean squared deviation (RMSD) tool was used to detect superimposition of query and template structure. CASTp server was used to predict the active site of the protein. In the end, whole results indicated the biological function of the target protein to be an acetyltransfarase.