European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Grenoble Outstation and Unit of Virus Host-Cell Interactions (UVHCI), UJF-EMBL-CNRS, UMR 5233, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, 38042 Grenoble CEDEX 9, France.
Curr Genomics. 2009 Dec;10(8):558-72. doi: 10.2174/138920209789503923.
We are witnessing tremendous advances in our understanding of the organization of life. Complete genomes are being deciphered with ever increasing speed and accuracy, thereby setting the stage for addressing the entire gene product repertoire of cells, towards understanding whole biological systems. Advances in bioinformatics and mass spectrometric techniques have revealed the multitude of interactions present in the proteome. Multiprotein complexes are emerging as a paramount cornerstone of biological activity, as many proteins appear to participate, stably or transiently, in large multisubunit assemblies. Analysis of the architecture of these assemblies and their manifold interactions is imperative for understanding their function at the molecular level. Structural genomics efforts have fostered the development of many technologies towards achieving the throughput required for studying system-wide single proteins and small interaction motifs at high resolution. The present shift in focus towards large multiprotein complexes, in particular in eukaryotes, now calls for a likewise concerted effort to develop and provide new technologies that are urgently required to produce in quality and quantity the plethora of multiprotein assemblies that form the complexome, and to routinely study their structure and function at the molecular level. Current efforts towards this objective are summarized and reviewed in this contribution.
我们正目睹着对生命组织的理解取得巨大进步。完整基因组正以越来越快的速度和越来越高的精度被破译，从而为研究细胞的全部基因产物谱奠定了基础，以了解整个生物系统。生物信息学和质谱技术的进步揭示了蛋白质组中存在的大量相互作用。多蛋白复合物作为生物活性的一个至关重要的基石正在出现，因为许多蛋白质似乎稳定或瞬时地参与到大的多亚基组装体中。分析这些组装体的结构及其多种相互作用对于在分子水平上理解它们的功能至关重要。结构基因组学的努力促进了许多技术的发展，以实现研究系统范围内的单个蛋白质和小相互作用基序的高通量要求，分辨率高。目前的重点转向大型多蛋白复合物，特别是在真核生物中，现在需要同样协调一致的努力来开发和提供新技术，以高质量和数量生产形成复杂组的大量多蛋白组装体，并定期在分子水平上研究它们的结构和功能。本文总结和回顾了目前在这一目标上的努力。
