Biomaterial Database

Protein conformational disorder and enzyme catalysis. 2013

Cindy Schulenburg, and Donald Hilvert

Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, ETH Zürich, 8093, Zürich, Switzerland.

Though lacking a well-defined three-dimensional structure, intrinsically unstructured proteins are ubiquitous in nature. These molecules play crucial roles in many cellular processes, especially signaling and regulation. Surprisingly, even enzyme catalysis can tolerate substantial disorder. This observation contravenes conventional wisdom but is relevant to an understanding of how protein dynamics modulates enzyme function. This chapter reviews properties and characteristics of disordered proteins, emphasizing examples of enzymes that lack defined structures, and considers implications of structural disorder for catalytic efficiency and evolution.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D011485	Protein Binding	The process in which substances, either endogenous or exogenous, bind to proteins, peptides, enzymes, protein precursors, or allied compounds. Specific protein-binding measures are often used as assays in diagnostic assessments.	Plasma Protein Binding Capacity,Binding, Protein
D011487	Protein Conformation	The characteristic 3-dimensional shape of a protein, including the secondary, supersecondary (motifs), tertiary (domains) and quaternary structure of the peptide chain. PROTEIN STRUCTURE, QUATERNARY describes the conformation assumed by multimeric proteins (aggregates of more than one polypeptide chain).	Conformation, Protein,Conformations, Protein,Protein Conformations
D002384	Catalysis	The facilitation of a chemical reaction by material (catalyst) that is not consumed by the reaction.	Catalyses
D004798	Enzymes	Biological molecules that possess catalytic activity. They may occur naturally or be synthetically created. Enzymes are usually proteins, however CATALYTIC RNA and CATALYTIC DNA molecules have also been identified.	Biocatalyst,Enzyme,Biocatalysts
D019418	Evolution, Chemical	Chemical and physical transformation of the biogenic elements from their nucleosynthesis in stars to their incorporation and subsequent modification in planetary bodies and terrestrial biochemistry. It includes the mechanism of incorporation of biogenic elements into complex molecules and molecular systems, leading up to the origin of life.	Chemical Evolution,Chemical Evolutions,Evolutions, Chemical
D064267	Intrinsically Disordered Proteins	Functional proteins that do not have unique, stable, folded, three-dimensional native structures or that possess non-ordered regions under physiological conditions. They are characterized by extraordinary structural flexibility and plasticity, which enable them to adopt different conformations in response to different stimuli or different interactions.	Intrinsically Disordered Protein,Natively Unfolded Protein,Unstructured Protein,Natively Unfolded Proteins,Unstructured Proteins,Disordered Protein, Intrinsically,Protein, Intrinsically Disordered,Protein, Natively Unfolded,Protein, Unstructured,Unfolded Protein, Natively