% IMPORTANT: The following is UTF-8 encoded. This means that in the presence % of non-ASCII characters, it will not work with BibTeX 0.99 or older. % Instead, you should use an up-to-date BibTeX implementation like “bibtex8” or % “biber”. @ARTICLE{Breimann:279438, author = {Breimann, Stephan and Kamp, Frits and Basset, Gabriele and Abou-Ajram, Claudia and Güner, Gökhan and Yanagida, Kanta and Okochi, Masayasu and Müller, Stephan A and Lichtenthaler, Stefan F and Langosch, Dieter and Frishman, Dmitrij and Steiner, Harald}, title = {{C}harting γ-secretase substrates by explainable {AI}.}, journal = {Nature Communications}, volume = {16}, number = {1}, issn = {2041-1723}, address = {[London]}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, reportid = {DZNE-2025-00769}, pages = {5428}, year = {2025}, abstract = {Proteases recognize substrates by decoding sequence information-an essential cellular process elusive when recognition motifs are absent. Here, we unravel this problem for γ-secretase, an intramembrane-cleaving protease associated with Alzheimer's disease and cancer, by developing Comparative Physicochemical Profiling (CPP), a sequence-based algorithm for identifying interpretable physicochemical features. We show that CPP deciphers a γ-secretase substrate signature with single-residue resolution, which can explain the conformational transitions observed in substrates upon γ-secretase binding. Using machine learning, we predict the entire human γ-secretase substrate scope, revealing numerous previously unknown substrates. Our approach outperforms state-of-the-art protein language models, improving prediction accuracy from $60\%$ to $90\%,$ and achieves an $88\%$ success rate in experimental validation. Building on these advancements, we identify pathways and diseases not linked before to γ-secretase. Generally, CPP decodes physicochemical signatures-a concept that extends beyond sequence motifs. We anticipate that our approach will be broadly applicable to diverse molecular recognition processes.}, keywords = {Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases: metabolism / Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases: chemistry / Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases: genetics / Humans / Machine Learning / Substrate Specificity / Alzheimer Disease: metabolism / Algorithms / Protein Binding / Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases (NLM Chemicals)}, cin = {AG Steiner / AG Lichtenthaler}, ddc = {500}, cid = {I:(DE-2719)1110000-1 / I:(DE-2719)1110006}, pnm = {352 - Disease Mechanisms (POF4-352)}, pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-352}, typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16}, pubmed = {pmid:40593564}, pmc = {pmc:PMC12219630}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-025-60638-z}, url = {https://pub.dzne.de/record/279438}, }