Worrall J A R, Górna M, Pei X Y, Spring D R, Nicholson R L, Luisi B F
Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1GA, UK.
Biochem Soc Trans. 2007 Jun;35(Pt 3):502-7. doi: 10.1042/BST0350502.
The principles of self-assembly are described for naturally occurring macromolecules and for complex assemblies formed from simple synthetic constituents. Many biological molecules owe their function and specificity to their three-dimensional folds, and, in many cases, these folds are specified entirely by the sequence of the constituent amino acids or nucleic acids, and without the requirement for additional machinery to guide the formation of the structure. Thus sequence may often be sufficient to guide the assembly process, starting from denatured components having little or no folds, to the completion state with the stable, equilibrium fold that encompasses functional activity. Self-assembly of homopolymeric structures does not necessarily preserve symmetry, and some polymeric assemblies are organized so that their chemically identical subunits pack stably in geometrically non-equivalent ways. Self-assembly can also involve scaffolds that lack structure, as seen in the multi-enzyme assembly, the degradosome. The stable self-assembly of lipids into dynamic membraneous sheets is also described, and an example is shown in which a synthetic detergent can assemble into membrane layers.
本文描述了天然存在的大分子以及由简单合成成分形成的复杂聚集体的自组装原理。许多生物分子的功能和特异性归因于其三维折叠结构，而且在许多情况下，这些折叠结构完全由组成氨基酸或核酸的序列决定，无需额外的机制来指导结构的形成。因此，序列通常足以指导组装过程，从几乎没有折叠或完全没有折叠的变性成分开始，直至形成具有稳定平衡折叠且包含功能活性的完整状态。同聚物结构的自组装不一定保持对称性，一些聚合物聚集体的组织方式使得其化学性质相同的亚基以几何上不等价的方式稳定堆积。自组装还可能涉及缺乏结构的支架，如多酶聚集体（降解体）所示。本文还描述了脂质稳定自组装成动态膜片的过程，并给出了一个合成洗涤剂可以组装成膜层的示例。
