Xie Hao, Guo Xiao-Ming, Chen Hong
Department of Biological Science and Biotechnology, Institute of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, People's Republic of China.
Mol Biotechnol. 2009 Jun;42(2):135-45. doi: 10.1007/s12033-009-9148-x. Epub 2009 Feb 7.
Membrane proteins can be investigated at various structural levels, including the topological structure, the high-resolution three-dimensional structure, and the organization and assembly of membrane protein complexes. Gene fusion technology makes it possible to insert a polynucleotide encoding a protein or polypeptide tag into the gene encoding a membrane protein of interest. Resultant recombinant proteins may possess the functions of the original membrane proteins, together with the biochemical properties of the imported fusion tag, greatly enhancing functional and structural studies of membrane proteins. In this article, the latest literature is reviewed in relation to types, applications, strategies, and approaches to fusion tag technology for structural investigations of membrane proteins.
膜蛋白可以在不同的结构水平上进行研究，包括拓扑结构、高分辨率三维结构以及膜蛋白复合物的组织和组装。基因融合技术使得将编码蛋白质或多肽标签的多核苷酸插入到编码感兴趣的膜蛋白的基因中成为可能。所得的重组蛋白可能具有原始膜蛋白的功能，同时具备导入的融合标签的生化特性，极大地增强了对膜蛋白的功能和结构研究。在本文中，我们综述了有关用于膜蛋白结构研究的融合标签技术的类型、应用、策略和方法的最新文献。
