Since the first TRP ion channel was discovered in Drosophila melanogaster in 1989, the progress made in this area of signaling research has yielded findings that offer the potential to dramatically impact human health and wellness. Involved in gateway activity for all five of our senses, TRP channels have been shown to respond to a wide range of st

Reflecting the various advances in the field, this book provides comprehensive coverage of protein-protein interactions. It presents a collection of the technical and theoretical issues involved in the study of protein associations, including biophysical approaches. It also offers a collection of computational methods for analyzing interactions.

This is now the fourth time that protein phosphorylation has been the focus of a NATO Advanced Study Institute. The first meeting with the topic "Signal Trans duction and Protein Phosphorylation" was held on the island of Spezai, Greece, in September 1986. The second one took place in Chateau La Londe, France, in September 1989 on "Cellular Regulation by Protein Phosphorylation", the third one on " Tyrosine Phosphorylation/Dephosphorylation and Downstream Signaling" was in September 1992 in Maratea, Italy. The titles of these books clearly mirror the developments that have taken place in the last decade. Beginning with the recognition that protein phosphorylation is at the center of signaling -clearly established in 1990 -it became apparent that many cellular processes are regulated by this mode. A new focus then emerged when it was recognized that growth factors are bound to corresponding receptors trigger protein tyrosine phosphorylation which controls cell prolifera tion. This was the topic of the third meeting in this series. It is now evident that further progress depends on understanding the three dimensional structure of the proteins involved. It goes without saying, for example, that understanding the location of proteins by adaptor proteins is only possible on the basis of the three dimensional protein structure. Therefore, the fourth meeting in this series concentrated on the protein structure of signaling molecules as well as on the elucidation of the principles of protein domain interactions.

Proteins are indispensable players in virtually all biological events. The functions of proteins are coordinated through intricate regulatory networks of transient protein-protein interactions (PPIs). To predict and/or study PPIs, a wide variety of techniques have been developed over the last several decades. Many in vitro and in vivo assays have been implemented to explore the mechanism of these ubiquitous interactions. However, despite significant advances in these experimental approaches, many limitations exist such as false-positives/false-negatives, difficulty in obtaining crystal structures of proteins, challenges in the detection of transient PPI, among others. To overcome these limitations, many computational approaches have been developed which are becoming increasingly widely used to facilitate the investigation of PPIs. This book has gathered an ensemble of experts in the field, in 22 chapters, which have been broadly categorized into Computational Approaches, Experimental Approaches, and Others.

This book illustrates the importance and significance of the molecular (physical and chemical) and evolutionary (gene fusion) principles of protein-protein and domain-domain interactions towards the understanding of cell division, disease mechanism and target definition in drug discovery. It describes the complex issues associated with this phenomenon using cutting edge advancement in Bioinformatics and Bioinformation Discovery. The chapters provide current information pertaining to the types of protein-protein complexes (homodimers, heterodimers, multimer complexes) in context with various specific and sensitive biological functions. The significance of such complex formation in human biology in the light of molecular evolution is also highlighted using several examples. The chapters also describe recent advancements on the molecular principles of protein-protein interaction with reference to evolution towards target identification in drug discovery. Finally, the book also elucidates a comprehensive yet a representative description of a large number of challenges associated with the molecular interaction of proteins.

This book describes more than 60 web-accessible computational tools for protein analysis and is totally practical, with detailed explanations on how to use these tools and interpret their results and minimal mentions to their theoretical basis (only when that is required for making a better use of them). It covers a wide range of tools for dealing with different aspects of proteins, from their sequences, to their three-dimensional structures, and the biological networks they are immersed in. The selection of tools is based on the experience of the authors that lead a protein bioinformatics facility in a large research centre, with the additional constraint that the tools should be accessible through standard web browsers without requiring the local installation of specific software, command-line tools, etc. The web tools covered include those aimed to retrieve protein information, look for similar proteins, generate pair-wise and multiple sequence alignments of protein sequences, work with protein domains and motifs, study the phylogeny of a family of proteins, retrieve, manipulate and visualize protein three-dimensional structures, predict protein structural features as well as whole three-dimensional structures, extract biological information from protein structures, summarize large protein sets, study protein interaction and metabolic networks, etc. The book is associated to a dynamic web site that will reflect changes in the web addresses of the tools, updates of these, etc. It also contains QR codes that can be scanned with any device to direct its browser to the tool web site. This monograph will be most valuable for researchers in experimental labs without specific knowledge on bioinformatics or computing.