Goodchild Sophia C, Curmi Paul M G, Brown Louise J
Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, 2109, Australia.
School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, 2052, Australia.
Biophys Rev. 2011 Sep;3(3):143. doi: 10.1007/s12551-011-0053-8. Epub 2011 Jul 28.
The classic structure-function paradigm holds that a protein exhibits a single well-defined native state that gives rise to its biological function. Nonetheless, over the past few decades, numerous examples of proteins exhibiting biological function arising from multiple structural states of varying disorder have been identified. Most recently, several examples of 'metamorphic proteins', able to interconvert between vastly different native-like topologies under physiological conditions, have been characterised with multiple functions. In this review, we look at the concept of protein metamorphosis in relation to the current understanding of the protein structure-function landscape. Although structural dynamism observed for metamorphic proteins provides a novel source of functional versatility, the dynamic nature of the metamorphic proteins generally makes them difficult to identify and probe using conventional protein structure determination methods. However, as the existence of metamorphic proteins has now been established and techniques enabling the analysis of multiple protein conformers are improving, it is likely that this class will continue to grow in number.
经典的结构-功能范式认为，蛋白质呈现出单一明确的天然状态，这种状态产生其生物学功能。然而，在过去几十年中，已经发现了许多蛋白质的例子，它们的生物学功能源自多种不同无序程度的结构状态。最近，已经鉴定出几个“变构蛋白”的例子，这些蛋白能够在生理条件下在截然不同的类似天然拓扑结构之间相互转换，并具有多种功能。在这篇综述中，我们结合当前对蛋白质结构-功能格局的理解来探讨蛋白质变构的概念。尽管观察到变构蛋白的结构动态性为功能多样性提供了新的来源，但变构蛋白的动态性质通常使它们难以使用传统的蛋白质结构测定方法进行鉴定和探究。然而，由于变构蛋白的存在现已得到证实，并且能够分析多种蛋白质构象的技术正在不断改进，这类蛋白的数量可能会继续增加。
