A bioinformatics study concerning structural and functional properties of human caveolin proteins

A bioinformatics study was performed to predict and compare the structural and functional properties of human caveolins: caveolin-1, -2 and -3. The computed local physicochemical properties, predictions of their secondary structure elements and interacting partners of caveolin-2 and -3 were compared to the experimentally determined structural and functional properties of cave- olin-1. These data combined with sequence alignments of the three caveolins allowed the functional domains of caveolin-2 and -3 to be predicted and characterised. The hydrophobic regions of these proteins are highly similar in sequences and physicochemical properties, which is in good agreement with their known membrane locations and functions. The most divergent in terms of sequences and properties are the C-terminal regions of the caveolins, suggest- ing that they might be responsible for their distinct predicted interactions, with direct consequences on signalling processes.