Designing Minimalist Membrane Proteins

Overview

Journal Biochem Soc Trans

Specialty Biochemistry

Date 2019 Nov 1

PMID 31671181

Citations 1

Authors

Paul Curnow

Affiliations

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Abstract

The construction of artificial membrane proteins from first principles is of fundamental interest and holds considerable promise for new biotechnologies. This review considers the potential advantages of adopting a strictly minimalist approach to the process of membrane protein design. As well as the practical benefits of miniaturisation and simplicity for understanding sequence-structure-function relationships, minimalism should also support the abstract conceptualisation of membrane proteins as modular components for synthetic biology. These ideas are illustrated with selected examples that focus upon α-helical membrane proteins, and which demonstrate how such minimalist membrane proteins might be integrated into living biosystems.

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