Journal
CURRENT OPINION IN STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY
Volume 26, Issue -, Pages 131-138Publisher
CURRENT BIOLOGY LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2014.06.007
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- Israel Science Foundation
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Assignment of protein folds to functions indicates that >60% of folds carry out one or two enzymatic functions, while few folds, for example, the TIM-barrel and Rossmann folds, exhibit hundreds. Are there structural features that make a fold amenable to functional innovation (innovability)? Do these features relate to robustness - the ability to readily accumulate sequence changes? We discuss several hypotheses regarding the relationship between the architecture of a protein and its evolutionary potential. We describe how, in a seemingly paradoxical manner, opposite properties, such as high stability and rigidity versus conformational plasticity and structural order versus disorder, promote robustness and/or innovability. We hypothesize that polarity - differentiation and low connectivity between a protein's scaffold and its active-site - is a key prerequisite for innovability.
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