Interplay between partner and ligand facilitates the folding and binding of an intrinsically disordered protein
Abstract
Specific protein-protein interactions are abundant in, and essential for, cellular life. In contrast to the well-studied docking of two already folded proteins, it has been recently established that many proteins are disordered and unfolded in the absence of their partner protein, but appear folded once bound. Must these initially disordered proteins transiently fold in isolation before binding their partners? We examine a small disordered protein and find that interactions with its (already structured) partner protein are what cause the relatively unstructured protein to fold. Thus, the requirement for one protein to fold is not an obstacle for reliable, fast association between two proteins. This result offers some explanation for the abundance of similar protein-protein interactions throughout biology.
- Publication:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- October 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1409122111
- Bibcode:
- 2014PNAS..11115420R