Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Membrane Protein Folding

Biomolecules

Ernesto A. Roman¹ 

[1] Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysical Chemistry, University of Buenos Aires-CONICET, Buenos Aires 1113, Argentina; E-Mail

关键词: membrane proteins;    thermodynamic stability;    urea;    guanidine hydrochloride;    sodium dodecyl sulfate;   

DOI  :  10.3390/biom4010354

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Understanding protein folding has been one of the great challenges in biochemistry and molecular biophysics. Over the past 50 years, many thermodynamic and kinetic studies have been performed addressing the stability of globular proteins. In comparison, advances in the membrane protein folding field lag far behind. Although membrane proteins constitute about a third of the proteins encoded in known genomes, stability studies on membrane proteins have been impaired due to experimental limitations. Furthermore, no systematic experimental strategies are available for folding these biomolecules in vitro. Common denaturing agents such as chaotropes usually do not work on helical membrane proteins, and ionic detergents have been successful denaturants only in few cases. Refolding a membrane protein seems to be a craftsman work, which is relatively straightforward for transmembrane β-barrel proteins but challenging for α-helical membrane proteins. Additional complexities emerge in multidomain membrane proteins, data interpretation being one of the most critical. In this review, we will describe some recent efforts in understanding the folding mechanism of membrane proteins that have been reversibly refolded allowing both thermodynamic and kinetic analysis. This information will be discussed in the context of current paradigms in the protein folding field.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.