title: More than Meets the Eye: Hidden Structures in the Proteome.
abstract: A central dogma of molecular biology is that the sequence of a protein dictates its particular fold and the fold dictates its function. Indeed, the sequence → structure → function hypothesis has been a guiding principle by which scientists approach molecular biology. Every student knows that the genome encodes information for the progression from primary sequence to secondary, tertiary, and ultimately quaternary structure. Yet with a growing number of proteins, a fifth level has been identified: rearrangement of existing structures into distinct forms. Recent observations indicate that replication of Ebola virus depends on this fifth level. We believe other viruses with compact genomes and rapid evolution under selective pressure will be a rich source of examples of polypeptides that rearrange to gain added functions. In this review, we describe mechanisms by which viral, prokaryotic, and eukaryotic polypeptides have adopted alternate structures to control or gain function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology and Microbial Science, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037; email: erica@scripps.edu.
authors.forename: Hal
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wasserman
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology and Microbial Science, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037; email: erica@scripps.edu.|Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037.
authors.forename: Erica Ollmann
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Saphire
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D029043:Ebolavirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D020836:Protein Structure, Quaternary; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D020543:Proteome / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D020543:Proteome; C080981:VP40 protein, virus; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins
keywords: Ebola virus; matrix; metamorphic protein; moonlighting protein; morpheein; transformer