Behind closed gates - chaperones and charged residues determine protein fate

Margreet B Koopman1,2, Stefan Gd Rüdiger1,2

  • 1Cellular Protein Chemistry, Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

The EMBO Journal
|May 1, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Charged residues near aggregation-prone protein regions prevent clumping. Negative charges are better gatekeepers than positive ones, though the Hsp70 chaperone prefers positive charges, suggesting evolutionary co-adaptation.

Area of Science:

  • Protein folding and aggregation
  • Molecular biology
  • Evolutionary biology

Background:

  • Charged residues flanking aggregation-prone regions are crucial for protein folding and preventing aggregation.
  • The specific roles of positive versus negative charges in this process are not fully understood.
  • The interaction between these charged residues and molecular chaperones, like Hsp70, requires further investigation.

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