An Effective Strategy for the Design of Proteins with Enhanced Mechanical Stability

摘要

There is increasing interest in the investigation of so-called mechanical proteins.These are common in specialized tissues involved in contraction,cell adhesion,and detection of mechanical stimuli,such as skeletal and cardiac striated muscle,connective tissue,and various kinds of epithelia.The development of methods for manipulating single molecules,particularly atomic force microscopy(AFM),allowed the study of the mechanical properties of such proteins.From the response of a protein molecule to an applied external force,it is now possible to determine characteristics such as stiffness and resilience,and,by means of protein engineering methods,it is becoming increasingly clear how these properties depend on the polypeptide architecture,and therefore,ultimately,on the protein sequence.