title: Allostery: an illustrated definition for the 'second secret of life'.
abstract: Although allosteric regulation is the 'second secret of life', the molecular mechanisms that give rise to allostery currently elude understanding. In my opinion, experimental progress is hampered by a commonly used but misleading definition of allostery as protein structural changes that are elicited by the binding of a single ligand. Allostery is more strictly defined in functional terms as a comparison of how one ligand binds in the absence, versus the presence, of a second ligand. Therefore, as each of the two binding events involves two protein complexes, a study of allostery must consider four complexes and not just two. Such a comparison can distinguish allosteric from non-allosteric protein changes, the importance of which is frequently overlooked. When a study of all four complexes is not feasible, an alternative, albeit limited, strategy can identify subsets of allosteric-specific changes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA. afenton@kumc.edu
authors.forename: Aron W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Fenton
mesh_terms: D000494:Allosteric Regulation; D000495:Allosteric Site; D008024:Ligands; D008954:Models, Biological; D046912:Multiprotein Complexes; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands; D046912:Multiprotein Complexes; D011506:Proteins