Seminars Archive

Simone Botti

Abstract




Wednesday, October 18, 2000, 11:00


Room 22, ground floor, Building "T"


Sincrotrone Trieste, Basovizza




Multiple Roles of Cholinesterases: from Catalysis to Molecular Recognition



Simone Botti

(Weizmann Institute of Science Department of Structural Biology Rehovot,
Israel)



ABSTRACT
This seminar will provide an overview of the latest research made by
our group in the field of cholinesterases, a family of enzymes whose roles
are expanding from the classic ones of "synaptic reset" to those of possible
neural cell adhesion molecules. The accent will be placed on the analysis
of the peculiar electrostatic properties of these enzymes, as a means to
define novel structural patterns on biological macromolecules. Through
this analysis we are able to define a new set of adhesion molecules, the
CLAMs (Cholinesterase Like Adhesion Molecules), which incorporate the cholinesterase
fold, along with an "annular region" of negative electrostatic surface
potential, that might act as the principal recognition site.