Bioinformatic Analysis on Jellyfish Hematoxin

AimTo illustrate the structure and function of five hematoxin sequences reported in four jellyfish and explore the possible mechanism of pathogenesis.MethodsBioinformatic methods were used to analyze the composition and sequence of amino acid residues, physico-chemical property, signal peptide, membrane spanning domain, hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity, secondary structure, conserved region and molecular phylogenetic evolution.Results and ConclusionsThe results showed that the five jellyfish hematoxins were similar in composition and sequence of amino acid residues and physico-chemical property. The amino acid sequences of jellyfish hematoxins contained membrane spanning domain and hydrophobic regions; with a possible cleavage site in the signal peptide between the amino acid residues 20 and 21; α-helix and random coil were the major motifs of predicted secondary structure while β-turn and extended strand spread in the whole protein; There were four conserved amino acid sequences in three of the five hematoxins and similar phylogenetic trees were constructed by both NJ and MP methods.