Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College Station, TX, 77843, USA.
Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA.
Cell Commun Signal. 2021 Aug 30;19(1):88. doi: 10.1186/s12964-021-00774-3.
For proteins, the sequence → structure → function paradigm applies primarily to enzymes, transmembrane proteins, and signaling domains. This paradigm is not universal, but rather, in addition to structured proteins, intrinsically disordered proteins and regions (IDPs and IDRs) also carry out crucial biological functions. For these proteins, the sequence → IDP/IDR ensemble → function paradigm applies primarily to signaling and regulatory proteins and regions. Often, in order to carry out function, IDPs or IDRs cooperatively interact, either intra- or inter-molecularly, with structured proteins or other IDPs or intermolecularly with nucleic acids. In this IDP/IDR thematic collection published in Cell Communication and Signaling, thirteen articles are presented that describe IDP/IDR signaling molecules from a variety of organisms from humans to fruit flies and tardigrades ("water bears") and that describe how these proteins and regions contribute to the function and regulation of cell signaling. Collectively, these papers exhibit the diverse roles of disorder in responding to a wide range of signals as to orchestrate an array of organismal processes. They also show that disorder contributes to signaling in a broad spectrum of species, ranging from micro-organisms to plants and animals.
对于蛋白质来说，序列-结构-功能范式主要适用于酶、跨膜蛋白和信号结构域。这个范式不是普遍适用的，而是除了结构蛋白外，还包括无序蛋白和区域（IDPs 和 IDRs），它们也执行着重要的生物学功能。对于这些蛋白质来说，序列-IDP/IDR 整体-功能范式主要适用于信号和调节蛋白及区域。通常，为了执行功能，IDPs 或 IDRs 会与结构蛋白或其他 IDPs 进行分子内或分子间相互作用，或者与核酸进行分子间相互作用。在这个发表在《细胞通讯与信号》（Cell Communication and Signaling）杂志的 IDP/IDR 主题特刊中，有十三篇文章描述了从人类到果蝇和缓步动物（“水熊”）等各种生物体中的 IDP/IDR 信号分子，以及这些蛋白质和区域如何促进细胞信号的功能和调节。这些论文共同展示了无序在响应广泛的信号中发挥的多样作用，以协调一系列生物体的过程。它们还表明，无序在从微生物到植物和动物的广泛物种中都有助于信号传递。
