Stabilizing membrane proteins through protein engineering.

Stabilizing membrane proteins through protein engineering. Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2013 Apr 29; Authors: Scott DJ, Kummer L, Tremmel D, Plückthun A Abstract Integral membrane proteins (IMPs) are crucial components of all cells but are difficult to study in vitro because they are generally unstable when removed from their native membranes using detergents. Despite the major biomedical relevance of IMPs, less than 1% of Protein Data Bank (PDB) entries are IMP structures, reflecting the technical gap between studies of soluble proteins compared to IMPs. Stability can be engineered into IMPs by inserting stabilizing mutations, thereby generating proteins that can be successfully applied to biochemical and structural studies when solubilized in detergent micelles. The identification of stabilizing mutations is not trivial, and this review will focus on the methods that have been used to identify stabilized membrane proteins, including alanine scanning and screening, directed evolution and computational design. PMID: 23639904 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Current Opinion in Chemical Biology - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Tags: Curr Opin Chem Biol Source Type: research