Prediction of the theoretical model of plasmepsin-1 protein precursor found in the malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum using homology modeling technique.

Plasmepsin-1 is a protein located in the digestive vacuole of intraerythrocytic stages of Plasmodium falciparum, where it functions in the proteolysis of human haemoglobin. This has emerged as one of the targets in the development of drug against Malaria. Therefore, Plasmepsin-1 protein precursor was selected to predict a theoretical model using “Homology Modeling” technique. Swiss MODEL (http://swissmodel.expasy.org) has been used as a tool for homology modeling of this selected protein. Proplasmepsin (ii) RESIDUES A – chain A [IPFZA] and proplasmepsin (ii) RESIDUES A – chain B [IPFZB] were the polypeptides used as templates, which showed 70% and 69% homology with Plasmepsin-1 protein precursor, respectively. Using these templates, the Plasmepsin-1 protein precursor sequence was aligned after appropriate alignment and a request was submitted to Swiss-MODEL. Ramachandran plot of the alignment depicts the presence of any of the amino-acids residues in the forbidden region and thereby the quality of the alignment was confirmed. On the successful completion and submission of the alignment, the theoretical model of Plasmepsin-1 protein precursor was obtained via . E-mail and was submitted (automatically) in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) database at http://www.resp.org/pdb and an Identity code (1LCRA) was obtained for this predicted model. The Ramachandran plot for the theoretical model showed the amino-acid residues distributed in conformationally favourable location, except for some glycine residues. It is suggested this theoretical model of Plasmepsin-1 protein precursor can be used as an alternate digital interface for the actual molecule and it can be used in the area of research like drug designing and vaccine development for the management of Malaria.