Metallothioneins: Protein structure prediction and sequence analyses in Cajanus cajan

Metallothioneins are a special group of small proteins capable of detoxifying non-essential metal ions present in excess within a plant cell. Metallothioneins are cysteine-rich diverse classes of heavy metal binding protein molecules which are essential for plant growth. These proteins are present in all taxa, except eubacteria. The similarity in protein sequences provides a basis for the method which predicts structural features of a protein with that of a known protein structure. Structural similarity of entire sequence or large sequence fragment enables prediction and modeling of entire structural domain, while distribution of local features of known protein structure make it possible to predict such features in structure of unknown or uncharacterised proteins. In this study, from available genomic resources metallothionein of pigeonpea was identified, structure of metallothionein was predicted and validated. We have presented a step-wise methodology to model a given protein and to validate the structures.