AI Article Synopsis
- About 10% of water-soluble proteins have long unfolding half-lives, indicating they rarely lose their structure.
- The study investigates the stability of diacylglycerol kinase, a membrane protein, finding it can also remain folded for several weeks.
- These findings suggest that both soluble and membrane proteins can be kinetically stable, which could influence their biological functions and guide future engineering of membrane proteins.
Article Abstract
Approximately 10% of water-soluble proteins are considered kinetically stable with unfolding half-lives in the range of weeks to millenia. These proteins only rarely sample the unfolded state and may never unfold on their respective biological time scales. It is still not known whether membrane proteins can be kinetically stable, however. Here we examine the subunit dissociation rate of the trimeric membrane enzyme, diacylglycerol kinase, from Escherichia coli as a proxy for complete unfolding. We find that dissociation occurs with a half-life of at least several weeks, demonstrating that membrane proteins can remain locked in a folded state for long periods of time. These results reveal that evolution can use kinetic stability to regulate the biological function of membrane proteins, as it can for soluble proteins. Moreover, it appears that the generation of kinetic stability could be a viable target for membrane protein engineering efforts.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3839629 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja407232b | DOI Listing |
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