A Kind of Plasma Membrane Intrinsic Protein in Astragalus membranaceus

Astragalus membranaceus is a kind of commonly used herb in traditional Chinese medicine. Plasma membrane intrinsic protein is one of its active ingredients which have important function. In this paper, several characters of Plasma membrane intrinsic protein are studied from the perspective of bioinformatics. First, the composition, the isoelectric point and the hydrophobicity characteristics of the Plasma membrane intrinsic protein are studied by bioinformatics tools. The results show that the molecular weight of plasma membrane intrinsic protein in Astragalus membranaceus is 30244.19, the theoretical isoelectric point is 8.28, the instability index is 30, its structure is stable and there are six transmembrane regions in the Plasma membrane intrinsic protein. Second, there are nine helixes and four strands in the secondary structure of Plasma membrane intrinsic protein. Finally, phosphorylation sites of Plasma membrane intrinsic protein have also been studied via netphos tool, and the result show that it has 23 phosphorylation sites (potential) in Plasma membrane intrinsic protein. This paper summarizes the status and functional usage of Astragalus membranaceus in the development of traditional Chinese medicine.