Müller Manuel M
Department of Chemistry, King's College London , 7 Trinity Street, London SE1 1DB, United Kingdom.
Biochemistry. 2018 Jan 16;57(2):177-185. doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.7b00861. Epub 2017 Nov 3.
Post-translational modifications (PTMs) dramatically enhance the capabilities of proteins. They introduce new functionalities and dynamically control protein activity by modulating intra- and intermolecular interactions. Traditionally, PTMs have been considered as reversible attachments to nucleophilic functional groups on amino acid side chains, whereas the polypeptide backbone is often thought to be inert. This paradigm is shifting as chemically and functionally diverse alterations of the protein backbone are discovered. Importantly, backbone PTMs can control protein structure and function just as side chain modifications do and operate through unique mechanisms to achieve these features. In this Perspective, I outline the various types of protein backbone modifications discovered so far and highlight their contributions to biology as well as the challenges in studying this versatile yet poorly characterized class of PTMs.
翻译后修饰（PTMs）极大地增强了蛋白质的功能。它们引入新的功能，并通过调节分子内和分子间相互作用来动态控制蛋白质活性。传统上，PTMs被认为是与氨基酸侧链上亲核官能团的可逆连接，而多肽主链通常被认为是惰性的。随着蛋白质主链在化学和功能上的多样化改变被发现，这种范式正在发生转变。重要的是，主链PTMs能够像侧链修饰一样控制蛋白质的结构和功能，并通过独特的机制来实现这些特性。在这篇观点文章中，我概述了迄今为止发现的各种蛋白质主链修饰类型，强调了它们对生物学的贡献以及研究这类多功能但特征尚不明确的PTMs所面临的挑战。
