Browsing by Author "Khan, Wajahat Ali"

Filter results by typing the first few letters
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    AtSWEET11 and AtSWEET12 transporters function in tandem to modulate sugar flux in plants
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2023) Fatima, Urooj; Balasubramaniam, D.; Khan, Wajahat Ali; Kandpal, Manu; Vadassery, Jyothilakshmi; Arockiasamy, Arulandu; Senthil-Kumar, Muthappa
    The sugar will eventually be exported transporter (SWEET) members in Arabidopsis, AtSWEET11 and AtSWEET12 are the important sucrose efflux transporters that act synergistically to perform distinct physiological roles. These two transporters are involved in apoplasmic phloem loading, seed filling, and sugar level alteration at the site of pathogen infection. Here, we performed the structural analysis of the sucrose binding pocket of AtSWEET11 and AtSWEET12 using molecular docking followed by rigorous molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We observed that the sucrose molecule binds inside the central cavity and in the middle of the transmembrane (TM) region of AtSWEET11 and AtSWEET12, that allows the alternate access to the sucrose molecule from either side of the membrane during transport. Both AtSWEET11 and AtSWEET12, shares the similar amino acid residues that interact with sucrose molecule. Further, to achieve more insights on the role of these two transporters in other plant species, we did the phylogenetic and the in-silico analyses of AtSWEET11 and AtSWEET12 orthologs from 39 economically important plants. We reported the extensive information on the gene structure, protein domain and cis-acting regulatory elements of AtSWEET11 and AtSWEET12 orthologs from different plants. The cis-elements analysis indicates the involvement of AtSWEET11 and AtSWEET12 orthologs in plant development and also during abiotic and biotic stresses. Both in silico and in planta expression analysis indicated AtSWEET11 and AtSWEET12 are well-expressed in the Arabidopsis leaf tissues. However, the orthologs of AtSWEET11 and AtSWEET12 showed the differential expression pattern with high or no transcript expression in the leaf tissues of different plants. Overall, these results offer the new insights into the functions and regulation of AtSWEET11 and AtSWEET12 orthologs from different plant species. This might be helpful in conducting the future studies to understand the role of these two crucial transporters in Arabidopsis and other crop plants.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Zinc2+ ion inhibits SARS-CoV-2 main protease and viral replication in vitro
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2021) Panchariya, Love; Khan, Wajahat Ali; Kuila, Shobhan; Sonkar, Kirtishila; Sahoo, Sibasis; Ghoshal, Archita; Kumar, Ankit; Verma, Dileep Kumar; Hasan, Abdul; Khan, Mohd Azeem; Jain, Niyati; Mohapatra, Amit Kumar; Das, Shubhashis; Thakur, Jitendra K.; Maiti, Souvik; Nanda, Ranjan Kumar; Halder, Rajkumar; Sunil, Sujatha; Arockiasamy, Arulandu
    Zinc deficiency is linked to poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients while clinical trials with zinc demonstrate better clinical outcomes. The molecular targets and mechanistic details of the anti-coronaviral activity of zinc remain obscure. We show that zinc not only inhibits the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) with nanomolar affinity, but also viral replication. We present the first crystal structure of the Mpro–Zn2+ complex at 1.9 Å and provide the structural basis of viral replication inhibition. We show that Zn2+ coordinates with the catalytic dyad at the enzyme active site along with two previously unknown water molecules in a tetrahedral geometry to form a stable inhibited Mpro–Zn2+ complex. Further, the natural ionophore quercetin increases the anti-viral potency of Zn2+. As the catalytic dyad is highly conserved across SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and all variants of SARS-CoV-2, Zn2+ mediated inhibition of Mpro may have wider implications.