Abstract
Background: Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a Gram-negative, obligate human specific pathogenic bacteria, predominantly causing a sexually transmitted infection known as gonorrhoea. The frequent emergence of new multiple drug resistant strain needs an extensive study of its genome for the development of new drug/vaccine target.
Objective: Here, our aim is to predict the function of all hypothetical proteins (HPs) of Neisseria gonorrhoeae genome using modern bioinformatic-tools.
Method: We have analyzed the genome sequence of N. gonorrhoeae and found that ~43% of genes are listed as conserved HP, for which no biochemical evidences are reported. To predict their possible functions using various bioinformatics tools and databases we have annotated amino acid sequences of all HPs from N. gonorrhoeae genome.
Results: We found proteins of unknown functions belonging to various classes. Functions of 478 proteins were annotated and we observed that out of these proteins 48% are enzymes, 10% as transporter, 5% proteins as nucleic acid-binding proteins and 11% sequences contain a domain of unknown function.
Conclusion: Functional annotation and identification of functionally important regions in the HPs from N. gonorrhoeae may be helpful for better understanding of its virulence mechanism, adaptability in host system, tolerance for host immune system and emergence of novel therapeutic intervention.
Keywords: Neisseria gonorrhoeae, hypothetical protein, sequence analysis, function annotation, domains and motifs.
Graphical Abstract
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