Patent ID: 7447595

Claim:
A method for evaluating and identifying putative substrates utilizing a Tat secretory pathway, comprising: a) reading a text file containing one or more amino acid sequences for a predicted protein; b) comparing residues 2 through 35 of the N′ terminal residues of the predicted protein against a Tat signal sequence motif, wherein the sequence motif is identified as (X −1 )R o R +1 (X +2 )(X +3 )(X +4 ), wherein X −1 is selected from the amino acid group consisting of M, H, A, P, K, R, N, T, G, S, D, Q and E; R o R +1 represent twin arginine residues, wherein X +2 is selected from the amino acid group consisting of A, P, K, R, N, T, G, S, D, Q and E; X +3 is selected from the amino acid group consisting of I, W, F, L, V, Y, M, C, H, A, P, N and T; and X +4 is selected from the amino acid group consisting of A, Q, I, L, V, M and F; c) if the Tat sequence motif is identified, verifying an uncharged stretch of at least 13 amino acid residues in the 22 residues following twin arginines of the predicted protein; d) calculating the hydrophobicity sum of the first 13 residues of the uncharged region; verifying the hydrophobicity sum is a value less than 8.0; and if the motif is identified and the criteria c) and d) are met, e) identifying the predicted protein as a putative Tat substrate; and f) outputting amino acid sequence of the predicted protein to user.