The resonant recognition model (RRM) predicts amino acid residues in highly conserved regions of the hormone prolactin (PRL)

The resonant recognition model (RRM) is a model which treats the protein se quence as a discrete signal. It has been shown previously that certain peri odicities (frequencies) in this signal characterise protein biological func tion. The RRM was employed to determine the characteristic frequencies of t he hormone prolactin (PRL), and to identify amino acids ('hot spots') mostl y contributing to these frequencies and thus proposed to mostly contribute to the biological function. The predicted 'hot spot' amino acids, Phe-19, S er-26, Ser-33, Phe-37, Phe-40, Gly-47, Gly-49, Phe-50, Ser-61, Gly-129, Arg -176, Arg-177, Cys-191 and Arg-192 are found in the highly conserved amino- terminal and C-terminus regions of PRL. Our predictions agree with previous experimentally tested residues by site-direct mutagenesis and photoaffinit y labelling. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.