The paradox of multifunctional homo-oligomers: methods of their localization and mechanisms of regulation of functional activity

Abstract

Multifunctional homo-oligomers, now better known as "Moonlighting proteins", are characterized by the ability to perform more than one biochemical or biophysical function within a single polypeptide chain. In this case, the multiplicity of functions is not due to gene fusion or multiple proteolytic fragments. Nowadays, there have been identified several hundreds of proteins of this class, including proteins with a wide variety of functions. Some of them are involved in a cascade of biochemical reactions, using the active site for catalysis, and another part of the protein surface to interact with other proteins. Many of them are involved in the development of pathological conditions; therefore, data on the structural and functional organization and mechanisms of changes in the localization of such proteins may be in great demand in the field of prevention and treatment of various pathologies.