Dark Proteins Important for Cellular Function.

TitleDark Proteins Important for Cellular Function.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2018
AuthorsSchafferhans, A, O'Donoghue, SI, Heinzinger, M, Rost, B
JournalProteomics
Volume18
Issue21-22
Paginatione1800227
Date Published2018 Nov
ISSN1615-9861
Abstract

Despite substantial and successful projects for structural genomics, many proteins remain for which neither experimental structures nor homology-based models are known for any part of the amino acid sequence. These have been called "dark proteins," in contrast to non-dark proteins, in which at least part of the sequence has a known or inferred structure. It has been hypothesized that non-dark proteins may be more abundantly expressed than dark proteins, which are known to have much fewer sequence relatives. Surprisingly, the opposite has been observed: human dark and non-dark proteins had quite similar levels of expression, in terms of both mRNA and protein abundance. Such high levels of expression strongly indicate that dark proteins-as a group-are important for cellular function. This is remarkable, given how carefully structural biologists have focused on proteins crucial for function, and highlights the important challenge posed by dark proteins in future research.

DOI10.1002/pmic.201800227
Alternate JournalProteomics
PubMed ID30318701
Grant List / / Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung /
(DFG-GZ: RO1320/4-1) / / Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft /