title: Order and disorder in intermediate filament proteins.
abstract: Intermediate filaments (IFs), important components of the cytoskeleton, provide a versatile, tunable network of self-assembled proteins. IF proteins contain three distinct domains: an α-helical structured rod domain, flanked by intrinsically disordered head and tail domains. Recent studies demonstrated the functional importance of the disordered domains, which differ in length and amino-acid sequence among the 70 different human IF genes. Here, we investigate the biophysical properties of the disordered domains, and review recent findings on the interactions between them. Our analysis highlights key components governing IF functional roles in the cytoskeleton, where the intrinsically disordered domains dictate protein-protein interactions, supramolecular assembly, and macro-scale order.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Micha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kornreich
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Ram
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Avinery
authors.affiliation: Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Eti
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Malka-Gibor
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Adi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laser-Azogui
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel. Electronic address: roy@post.tau.ac.il.
authors.forename: Roy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beck
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D007381:Intermediate Filament Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011485:Protein Binding; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D007381:Intermediate Filament Proteins
keywords: Cytoskeleton; Intermediate filament; Intrinsically disordered protein; Polymer brush; Self-assembly