Conformational trapping in a membrane environment: a regulatory mechanism for protein activity?
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 8650185.
- Also identified by PMC identifier 39154.
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Abstract
Functional regulation of proteins is central to living organisms. Here it is shown that a nonfunctional conformational state of a polypeptide can be kinetically trapped in a lipid bilayer environment. This state is a metastable structure that is stable for weeks just above the phase transition temperature of the lipid. When the samples are incubated for several days at 68 degrees C, 50% of the trapped conformation converts to the minimum-energy functional state. This result suggests the possibility that another mechanism for functional regulation of protein activity may be available for membrane proteins: that cells may insert proteins into membranes in inactive states pending the biological demand for protein function.
Medical subject headings
- Proteins