Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat & Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2019 Feb;54:1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2018.09.004. Epub 2018 Sep 28.
A large body of work has gone into understanding the effect of mutations on protein structure and function. Conventional treatments have involved quantifying the change in stability, activity and relaxation rates of the mutants with respect to the wild-type protein. However, it is now becoming increasingly apparent that mutational perturbations consistently modulate the packing and dynamics of a significant fraction of protein residues, even those that are located >10-15 Å from the mutated site. Such long-range modulation of protein features can distinctly tune protein stability and the native conformational ensemble contributing to allosteric modulation of function. In this review, I summarize a series of experimental and computational observations that highlight the incredibly pliable nature of proteins and their response to mutational perturbations manifested via the intra-protein interaction network. I highlight how an intimate understanding of mutational effects could pave the way for integrating stability, folding, cooperativity and even allostery within a single physical framework.
大量的研究工作致力于了解突变对蛋白质结构和功能的影响。传统的治疗方法涉及量化突变体相对于野生型蛋白质的稳定性、活性和弛豫率的变化。然而,现在越来越明显的是,突变扰动始终调节蛋白质残基的包装和动力学,即使那些位于突变位点 >10-15 Å 之外的残基。这种蛋白质特征的长程调制可以明显调节蛋白质稳定性和天然构象集合,从而有助于功能的变构调节。在这篇综述中,我总结了一系列实验和计算观察结果,这些结果突出了蛋白质令人难以置信的柔韧性及其对突变扰动的响应,这种响应是通过蛋白质内相互作用网络表现出来的。我强调了如何通过深入了解突变效应,为在单个物理框架内整合稳定性、折叠、协同性甚至变构作用铺平道路。