Title |
Conformational Proofreading: The Impact of Conformational Changes on the Specificity of Molecular Recognition
|
---|---|
Published in |
PLOS ONE, May 2007
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0000468 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Yonatan Savir, Tsvi Tlusty |
Abstract |
To perform recognition, molecules must locate and specifically bind their targets within a noisy biochemical environment with many look-alikes. Molecular recognition processes, especially the induced-fit mechanism, are known to involve conformational changes. This raises a basic question: Does molecular recognition gain any advantage by such conformational changes? By introducing a simple statistical-mechanics approach, we study the effect of conformation and flexibility on the quality of recognition processes. Our model relates specificity to the conformation of the participant molecules and thus suggests a possible answer: Optimal specificity is achieved when the ligand is slightly off target; that is, a conformational mismatch between the ligand and its main target improves the selectivity of the process. This indicates that deformations upon binding serve as a conformational proofreading mechanism, which may be selected for via evolution. |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Germany | 2 | 1% |
United States | 2 | 1% |
France | 2 | 1% |
Japan | 2 | 1% |
Korea, Republic of | 1 | <1% |
South Africa | 1 | <1% |
Canada | 1 | <1% |
Switzerland | 1 | <1% |
United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
Other | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 141 | 91% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 44 | 28% |
Researcher | 27 | 17% |
Student > Bachelor | 14 | 9% |
Professor | 11 | 7% |
Student > Master | 8 | 5% |
Other | 23 | 15% |
Unknown | 28 | 18% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 35 | 23% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 31 | 20% |
Physics and Astronomy | 21 | 14% |
Chemistry | 16 | 10% |
Engineering | 9 | 6% |
Other | 11 | 7% |
Unknown | 32 | 21% |