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PROTEIN FOLDING

The multi-structural protein revolution — why so late?

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 23, page 92 (2022)Cite this article

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Molecular cell biology is currently undergoing a conceptual revolution, following the realization at the turn of this century that many active proteins, instead of having unique and highly specific configurations as generally believed since the mid-1930s, are in fact intrinsically disordered, pleomorphic and multifunctional structures with stochastic behaviours.

The question is: why has this realization occurred so late? Many such features were known already by the middle of the past century, in the wake of Hermann Staudinger’s ample demonstration that high-molecular-weight organic compounds are built as chains of covalently linked similar units, which he termed macromolecules, pointing out that proteins and other organic high-molecular-weight molecules were probably this kind of polymer. In a book on protoplasm research published by Staudinger and his plant-physiologist wife Magda shortly after he was awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize in Chemistry — “for his discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry” — the Staudingers remarked that “a number of intermediate states are possible between solid and dissolved or liquid, all of which are related to the shape of the macromolecules”, stressing also that “shape determines the essential properties of macromolecules” and that “the peculiar combination of very great stability with multiple responsiveness, are typical macromolecular properties”.

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References

Original articles

  • Staudinger, H. & Staudinger, M. in Protoplasmatologia; Handbuch der Protoplasmaforschung (eds Heilbrunn, L. V. & Weber, F.) 1–73 (Springer-Verlag Wien GMBH, 1954)

  • Jirgensons, B. Classification of proteins according to conformation. Die Makromolekulare Chemie 91, 74–86 (1966)

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  1. Center for Research and Advanced Studies (Cinvestav), Mexico City, Mexico

    Eugenio Frixione & Lourdes Ruiz-Zamarripa

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  1. Eugenio Frixione
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  2. Lourdes Ruiz-Zamarripa
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Correspondence to Eugenio Frixione.

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Frixione, E., Ruiz-Zamarripa, L. The multi-structural protein revolution — why so late?. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 23, 92 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-021-00435-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-021-00435-w

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