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Updated: Aug 26, 2026

Transmembrane Domain Oligomerization Propensity determined by ToxR Assay
Published on: May 26, 2011
Transmembrane protein domains rarely use covalent domain recombination as an evolutionary mechanism
Yang Liu1, Mark Gerstein, Donald M Engelman
1Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8114, USA.
Abstract:
Recombination of evolutionarily unrelated domains is a mechanism often used by evolution to produce variety in soluble proteins. By using a classification of polytopic transmembrane domains into families, we examined integral membrane proteins for evidence of this mechanism. Surprisingly, we found that domain recombination is not common for the transmembrane regions of membrane proteins, a majority of integral membrane proteins containing only a single transmembrane domain. We suggest that noncovalent oligomeric associations, which are common in membrane proteins, may provide an alternative source of evolutionary diversity.
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