兼职功能蛋白

Moonlighting Proteins

兼职功能蛋白(moonlighting proteins)是指一类具有两种或两种以上功能的蛋白,且这些功能间没有直接相关性,此类蛋白能够通过多种形式转换其功能.随着科学研究的深入,越来越多的已知功能的蛋白被发现具有新型兼职功能,其兼职功能对生物体的意义绝不亚于其所谓本职功能.兼职功能蛋白的发现大大拓展了基因、蛋白质与生理功能一一对应的传统观念;特别是最近研究发现一类叫做无固有结构蛋白(intrinsically unstructured proteins,IUPs)表现出多功能性,向"蛋白质的功能等视于确定的三维结构"的经典定律发起了挑战.本文综述了兼职功能蛋白的功能转换机制、进化历程、研究方法等方面的最新研究进展,同时对兼职功能蛋白给生命科学研究带来的新思路和新挑战进行了深入的讨论.

Moonlighting proteins refer to a category of proteins having two or more but not closely related functions to participate in various mechanisms based on their different forms.Today,more and more ＂classical＂proteins have been identified to have new functions no less significant to their original ones that were recognized in the metabolic networks.These new discoveries have greatly expanded the family of moonlighting proteins and challenged the dogma of＂one gene-one protein-one function＂.Recently,the intrinsically unstructured proteins（IUPs） as a new class of multiple-functional proteins nearly overturned the classical structure-function paradigm for the determination of protein functions.This review outlined the recent advance in the functional switching mechanisms,evolutionary measures and the methodology of the moonlighting protein studies.