Proteins turn “Proteans” – The over 40-year delayed paradigm shift in structural biology: From “native proteins in uniquely defined configurations” to “intrinsically disordered proteins”

Abstract

The current millennium brought up a revolutionary paradigm shift in molecular biology: many operative proteins, rather than being quasi-rigid polypeptide chains folded into unique configurations – as believed throughout most of the past century – are now known to be intrinsically disordered, dynamic, pleomorphic, and multifunctional structures with stochastic behaviors. Yet, part of this knowledge, including suggestions about possible mechanisms and plenty of evidence for the same, became available by the 1950s and 1960s to remain then nearly forgotten for over 40 years. Here, we review the main steps toward the classic notions about protein structures, as well as the neglected precedents of present views, discuss possible explanations for such long oblivion, and offer a sketch of the current panorama in this field.

Keywords

• biomacromolecules
• structural biology
• intrinsically disordered proteins
• molecular size and shape-related properties
• molecular dynamics