Frequency-Rank Correlations of Rhodopsin Mutations with Tuned Hydropathic Roughness Based on Self-Organized Criticality

TL;DR

This study links rhodopsin mutation frequencies to their hydropathic roughness, showing a strong correlation that could help understand protein mutation survival in diseases.

Contribution

It introduces a novel correlation between mutation frequency and hydropathic roughness based on self-organized criticality in rhodopsin.

Findings

Mutation frequency correlates with posttranslational survival rates.

Hydropathic roughness explains 82% of mutation survival variation.

Potential application to other mutated proteins.

Abstract

The behavior of disease-linked mutations of membrane proteins is especially simple in rhodopsin, where they are well-studied, as they are responsible for retinitis pigmentosa, RP (retinal degeneration). Here we show that the frequency of occurrence of single RP mutations is strongly influenced by their posttranslational survival rates, and that this survival correlates well (82%) with a long-range, non-local hydropathic measure of the roughness of the water interfaces of ex-membrane rhodopsin based on self-organized criticality (SOC). It is speculated that this concept may be generally useful in studying survival rates of many mutated proteins.