TBI, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, INRAE, INSA, Toulouse, France.
Université Paris Cité, INSERM, BIGR, Paris, France.
Methods Mol Biol. 2025;2870:357-370. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-4213-9_18.
The three-dimensional structure of proteins is traditionally organized into hierarchical levels, specifically secondary structures and domains. However, different studies suggest the existence of intermediate levels, such as Protein Units (PUs), which provide a refined understanding of protein architecture. PUs, characterized by their compactness and independence, serve as an intermediate organizational level, bridging the gap between secondary structures and domains. This new view not only enhances our comprehension of protein structure, folding, and evolutionary mechanisms but also provides a robust methodology for identifying and categorizing protein domains. Based on the concept of PUs, alternative structural partitioning solutions can be proposed that address the structural ambiguity of proteins, leading to more meaningful domain identification.
蛋白质的三维结构传统上分为层次结构，具体为二级结构和结构域。然而，不同的研究表明存在中间层次，例如蛋白质单元（PU），这为理解蛋白质结构提供了更精细的认识。PU 具有紧凑性和独立性的特点，作为中间组织层次存在，连接二级结构和结构域之间的差距。这种新的观点不仅增强了我们对蛋白质结构、折叠和进化机制的理解，还为识别和分类蛋白质结构域提供了强大的方法。基于 PU 的概念，可以提出替代的结构分区解决方案，解决蛋白质的结构歧义问题，从而更有意义地识别结构域。
