Question

NBFD is a ligand-gated ion channelthat is found in the plasma membrane of many amoeba. NBFD binds foodand triggers phagocytosisby mediating the opening of Ca2+channels in the cell’s plasma membrane. NBFD was mutated such that the sequence of one of the transmembrane domains changed from LVISLIVESMVWLQEAVLEQLLItoHTLDFLSNKYMTYGGRIDKMSP. Would this change the ability of the protein to function normally? Provide details to support your answer

Answer 1

Yes. It will greatly affect the function of the proteins as the protein will largely lose its stability in the hydrophobic lipid bilayer. This is so because when you compare the normal and the mutated amino acid sequence you will observe that the former possesses majority of non-polar residues like valine, isoleucine, leucine, etc. while the larger is seen to have a lot of charged residues like lysine, glutamate, as well as polar residues like serine, tyrosine etc.