Department of Biochemistry, NKI, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Struct Biol. 2011 Aug;175(2):106-12. doi: 10.1016/j.jsb.2011.05.014. Epub 2011 May 18.
Structural biologists studying macromolecular complexes spend considerable effort doing strictly "non-structural" work: investigating the physiological relevance and biochemical properties of a complex, preparing homogeneous samples for structural analysis, and experimentally validating structure-based hypotheses regarding function or mechanism. Familiarity with the diverse perspectives and techniques available for studying complexes helps in the critical assessment of non-structural data, expedites the pre-structural characterization of a complex and facilitates the investigation of function. Here we survey the approaches and techniques used to study macromolecular complexes from various viewpoints, including genetics, cell and molecular biology, biochemistry/biophysics, structural biology, and systems biology/bioinformatics. The aim of this overview is to heighten awareness of the diversity of perspectives and experimental tools available for investigating complexes and of their usefulness for the structural biologist.
结构生物学家在研究大分子复合物时，花费了大量精力进行严格的“非结构”工作：研究复合物的生理相关性和生化特性，为结构分析准备均质样品，并通过实验验证关于功能或机制的基于结构的假设。熟悉用于研究复合物的各种观点和技术有助于对非结构数据进行批判性评估，加速复合物的预结构表征，并促进功能研究。在这里，我们从多个角度调查了用于研究大分子复合物的方法和技术，包括遗传学、细胞和分子生物学、生物化学/生物物理学、结构生物学和系统生物学/生物信息学。本综述的目的是提高人们对研究复合物的各种观点和实验工具的认识，以及它们对结构生物学家的有用性。
