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Protein oligomerization as a metabolic control mechanism: Application to apoE
Author(s) -
Frieden Carl
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
protein science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.353
H-Index - 175
eISSN - 1469-896X
pISSN - 0961-8368
DOI - 10.1002/pro.3583
Subject(s) - mechanism (biology) , metabolic control analysis , chemistry , biochemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , computational biology , biology , physics , quantum mechanics , insulin
Abstract It has been estimated that 30%–50% of proteins self‐assemble to form complexes consisting of multiple copies of themselves. If there is a functional difference between different molecular weight forms and if these forms interconvert on a reasonable time scale then oligomerization could be an important metabolic control mechanism. The example given here is of apoE for which the oligomerization process is measured in minutes to hours and the monomer binds lipids while the tetramer does not. Examination of the literature reveals few reports on the rate constants that control the interconversion of different molecular weight forms. Perhaps it is time to collect such data.