Overcoming barriers to membrane protein structure determination.

Journal article

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: Bill, R; Henderson, P; Iwata, S; Kunji, E; Michel, H

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Nature biotechnology
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 335-340
• Publication date: 2011-04-01
• DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1833
• EISSN: 1546-1696
• ISSN: 1087-0156
• Language: English
• Keywords: Membrane Proteins; Databases, Protein; X-Ray Diffraction; Protein Engineering; Protein Unfolding; Protein Structure, Tertiary; Protein Stability; Crystallization; Recombinant Proteins