Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Cells and Developmental Biology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, Qingdao, China.
FEBS Lett. 2022 Jul;596(14):1839-1850. doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14378. Epub 2022 May 27.
The membrane occupation and recognition nexus (MORN) motif was first defined in 2000, when it was identified in the junctophilin protein family. Dozens of studies have been published ever since, mainly focusing on the function of a given MORN motif-containing protein in parasites, plants or animal cells. Proteins with MORN motifs are not only expressed in most animal and plant cell types, but also significantly differ in their intracellular localization, suggesting that the MORN motifs may fulfill multiple physiological functions. Recent studies have found that MORN motif-containing proteins junctophilin-1/2 and MORN3 play a role in cardiac hypertrophy, skeletal muscle fiber stability and cancer. Hence, MORN motif-containing proteins may be exploited to develop improved treatments for various pathological conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases. Here, we review current research on MORN motif-containing proteins in different organisms and provide both ideas and approaches for follow-up exploration of their functions and applications.
膜占据和识别连接（MORN）基序于 2000 年首次被定义，当时它在衔接蛋白家族中被发现。自那以后，已经发表了数十项研究，主要集中在寄生虫、植物或动物细胞中特定含有 MORN 基序的蛋白质的功能上。含有 MORN 基序的蛋白质不仅在大多数动物和植物细胞类型中表达，而且其细胞内定位也有显著差异，这表明 MORN 基序可能具有多种生理功能。最近的研究发现，含有 MORN 基序的蛋白质衔接蛋白-1/2 和 MORN3 在心脏肥大、骨骼肌纤维稳定性和癌症中发挥作用。因此，含有 MORN 基序的蛋白质可能被用于开发治疗各种病理状况的改良方法，如心血管疾病。在这里，我们综述了不同生物体中含有 MORN 基序的蛋白质的最新研究，并为后续探索它们的功能和应用提供了思路和方法。
