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Intrinsically unstructured proteins evolve by repeat expansion.

Peter Tompa1

  • 1Institute of Enzymology, Biological Research Center, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1518 Budapest, PO Box 7, Hungary. tompa@enzim.hu

Bioessays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
|August 26, 2003
PubMed
Summary
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Intrinsically unstructured proteins, crucial for complex organisms, often arise from expanding internal repeat regions. These repetitive sequences are vital for protein function and evolve rapidly, driving the expansion of this protein class.

Area of Science:

  • Genomics
  • Molecular Biology
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • The proportion of intrinsically unstructured proteins (IUPs) increases with organismal complexity.
  • Mechanisms for generating novel genetic material encoding IUPs are needed.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of internal repeat regions, specifically coding micro- and minisatellites, in the generation of intrinsically unstructured proteins.
  • To analyze the prevalence and functional significance of repeats in IUPs.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 126 known intrinsically unstructured protein sequences.
  • Comparison of repeat percentages in IUPs with existing data for Swiss-Prot, yeast, and human proteomes.

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • A significantly higher percentage of intrinsically unstructured proteins (39%) contain tandemly repeated short segments compared to general proteomes (14-28%).
  • Examples like salivary proline-rich proteins, titin, and RNA polymerase II demonstrate the functional importance of repetitive segments in IUPs.
  • Interspecies variation and polymorphism in repeat numbers indicate intense evolutionary shaping.

    • Conclusions:

    • Expansion of internal repeat regions is a key mechanism for generating novel intrinsically unstructured proteins.
    • The genetic instability of repetitive regions and the permissive nature of unstructured proteins drive the evolution and functional expansion of this protein class.