无序蛋白质的判定及其结构、功能和进化特征

The Identification of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins and Their Structural, Functional, Evolutionary Features

固有无序蛋白质(intrinsically disordered proteins,IDPs)是天然条件下自身不能折叠为明确唯一的空间结构,却具有生物学功能的一类新发现的蛋白质.这类蛋白质的发现是对传统的"结构-功能"关系认识模式的挑战.本文首先总结了无序蛋白质的实验鉴定手段、预测方法、数据库;并介绍了无序蛋白质结构(包括一级结构、二级结构、结构域无序性及变构效应)和功能特征;然后重点总结了无序蛋白质在进化角度研究的进展,包括无序区域产生的进化机制、进化速率,蛋白无序性的进化在蛋白质功能进化及生物学复杂性增加等方面的重要作用;最后展望了无序蛋白质在医药方面的应用前景.本文对于深入认识无序蛋白质的形成机制、结构和功能特征及其潜在的临床应用前景具有重要意义.

Intrinsically disordered proteins（IDPs） do not shape into a stable and well-structured three-dimensional fold, while they are biologically active. The discovery of IDPs is in contradiction to the traditional ＂structure-function＂ relationship. In this review, the experimental and computational methods for the identification of IDPs, and the corresponding databases were summarized. Then, we introduce the structural features（including primary structure, secondary structure, disorder of protein domain and the allosteric effect） and functional features of IDPs. We also specially focused on the evolutionary researches of IDPs. The evolutionary mechanisms of the formation of IDPs and the evolutionary rates of disordered regions were described. And the important roles of IDPs＇ evolution in the evolution of biological function and the increasing of biological complexity were summarized. Finally, we discussed the prospects of IDPs in medical applications. This review is of great significance for the further understanding of IDPs＇ formation mechanism, structural and functional characteristics and their potential prospects in clinical application.