Department of Chemistry, Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Bioscience Division, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA; Stanford University, Department of Structural Biology, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2018 Aug;51:44-52. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2018.03.009. Epub 2018 Mar 16.
G protein-coupled receptors mediate cell signaling and regulate the majority of sensory and physiological processes in the human body. Recent breakthroughs in cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray free electron lasers have accelerated structural studies of difficult-to-crystallize receptors and their signaling complexes, and have opened up new opportunities in understanding conformational dynamics and visualizing the process of receptor activation with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. Here, we summarize major milestones and challenges associated with the application of these techniques and outline future directions in their development with a focus on membrane protein structural biology.
G 蛋白偶联受体介导细胞信号转导,调节人体大部分感觉和生理过程。近年来,冷冻电子显微镜和自由电子 X 射线激光技术的突破加速了难结晶受体及其信号复合物的结构研究,为理解构象动力学和以前所未有的时空分辨率可视化受体激活过程提供了新的机会。在这里,我们总结了这些技术应用的主要里程碑和挑战,并概述了其发展的未来方向,重点是膜蛋白结构生物学。