PART A: CONCEPTUAL QUESTIONS

• Answer any of the following questions by Shuguang Zhang

PART B: PROTEIN ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION

B.1) BRIEFLY DESCRIBE THE PROTEIN YOU SELECTED AND WHY YOU SELECTED IT

I chose the PKS1 (Polyketide Synthase) protein, specifically Non-reducing polyketide synthase PKS1 [Cladosporium halotolerans]. Polyketide synthases (PKS) are a class of enzymes that biosynthesize polyketides. Phthalides are structurally related to polyketides, and some fungi produce various phthalides, suggesting that PKS genes may be involved in the biosynthesis of 3-n-butylphthalide (NBP).

With the aim of developing the heterologous expression of the PKS1 gene in Escherichia coli to enhance 3-n-butylphthalide (NBP) production, this approach could serve as an alternative method to chemical synthesis and natural extraction.

B.2) IDENTIFY THE AMINO ACID SEQUENCE OF YOUR PROTEIN

I used NCBI to find protein sequence

Non-reducing polyketide synthase PKS1 [Cladosporium halotolerans] - Protein - NCBI.html

B.2.1) How long is it?  What is the most frequent amino acid?

The PKS1 protein has 2,175 amino acids. This information was provided by the NCBI and confirmed by the Amino Acid Count.ipynb tool.

The most frequent amino acid was Alanine (A), as can be seen below.