title: Overcoming barriers to membrane protein structure determination.
abstract: After decades of slow progress, the pace of research on membrane protein structures is beginning to quicken thanks to various improvements in technology, including protein engineering and microfocus X-ray diffraction. Here we review these developments and, where possible, highlight generic new approaches to solving membrane protein structures based on recent technological advances. Rational approaches to overcoming the bottlenecks in the field are urgently required as membrane proteins, which typically comprise ~30% of the proteomes of organisms, are dramatically under-represented in the structural database of the Protein Data Bank.
authors.affiliation: School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: Roslyn M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Bill
authors.forename: Peter J F
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.forename: So
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iwata
authors.forename: Edmund R S
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Kunji
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Michel
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Neutze
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Newstead
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Poolman
authors.forename: Christopher G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Tate
authors.forename: Horst
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vogel
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization; D030562:Databases, Protein; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D015202:Protein Engineering; D055550:Protein Stability; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D058767:Protein Unfolding; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins