Overcoming barriers to membrane protein structure determination.

• 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.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Crystallization

Databases

Protein

Membrane Proteins

chemistry

Protein Engineering

Protein Stability

Protein Structure

Tertiary

Protein Unfolding

Recombinant Proteins

biosynthesis

X-Ray Diffraction

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)