The Cysteine-Rich Interdomain Region from the Highly Variable Plasmodium falciparum Erythrocyte Membrane Protein-1 Exhibits a Conserved Structure
Figure 3
Sequence conservation of all CIDR domains of the 3D7 genome mapped on to the MC179 structure.
High to low conservation is mapped as a color gradient (dark blue to white) on the molecular surface of MC179. A highly conserved surface patch (dark blue) means that a high percentage of the residues at that position in the alignment of all 3D7 CIDR domains (Figure S2) are identical to the surface-exposed MC179 residue. (A) View of one side of MC179 reveals little conservation. (B) View after a rotation of 180° shows a highly conserved region on the molecule. Cys 51 is conserved in all CIDR domains. Other highly conserved residues that contribute to the conserved surface between Cys 51 and the N-terminus are Trp 14, Asp 21, Trp 55, Lys 59, Glu 62, and Ile 66 (not shown). Little conservation is seen on the surfaces of the connecting helices. The cartoons to the right are reference diagrams in the same orientations as the surfaces. A few highly conserved residues are not visible at the surface because they are completely buried. Sequence alignments (Figures S1, S2 and S3) were used as input to the Protskin server [38] to produce this figure and Figure 4.