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Transmembrane protein

A transmembrane protein (TP) is a type of integral membrane protein that spans the entirety of the cell membrane to which it is permanently attached. Many transmembrane proteins function as gateways to permit the transport of specific substances across the membrane. They frequently undergo significant conformational changes to move a substance through the membrane. A transmembrane protein (TP) is a type of integral membrane protein that spans the entirety of the cell membrane to which it is permanently attached. Many transmembrane proteins function as gateways to permit the transport of specific substances across the membrane. They frequently undergo significant conformational changes to move a substance through the membrane. Transmembrane proteins are polytopic proteins that aggregate and precipitate in water. They require detergents or nonpolar solvents for extraction, although some of them (beta-barrels) can be also extracted using denaturing agents. The peptide sequence that spans the membrane, or the transmembrane domain, is largely hydrophobic, allowing for transmembrane prediction methods such as the hydropathy plot. Despite this, there are variations in polarity along the length of the transmembrane sequence. The polarity depends greatly on whether the location under investigation is facing the surrounding lipid molecules or facing an aqueous pore. The other type of integral membrane protein is the integral monotopic protein that is also permanently attached to the cell membrane but does not pass through it. There are two basic types of transmembrane proteins: alpha-helical and beta-barrels. Alpha-helical proteins are present in the inner membranes of bacterial cells or the plasma membrane of eukaryotes, and sometimes in the outer membranes. This is the major category of transmembrane proteins. In humans, 27% of all proteins have been estimated to be alpha-helical membrane proteins.Beta-barrel proteins are so far found only in outer membranes of gram-negative bacteria, cell walls of gram-positive bacteria, outer membranes of mitochondria and chloroplasts, or can be secreted as pore-forming toxins. All beta-barrel transmembrane proteins have simplest up-and-down topology, which may reflect their common evolutionary origin and similar folding mechanism. This classification refers to the position of the protein N- and C-termini on the different sides of the lipid bilayer. Types I, II, III and IV are single-pass molecules. Type I transmembrane proteins are anchored to the lipid membrane with a stop-transfer anchor sequence and have their N-terminal domains targeted to the ER lumen during synthesis (and the extracellular space, if mature forms are located on plasmalemma). Type II and III are anchored with a signal-anchor sequence, with type II being targeted to the ER lumen with its C-terminal domain, while type III have their N-terminal domains targeted to the ER lumen. Type IV is subdivided into IV-A, with their N-terminal domains targeted to the cytosol and IV-B, with an N-terminal domain targeted to the lumen. The implications for the division in the four types are especially manifest at the time of translocation and ER-bound translation, when the protein has to be passed through the ER membrane in a direction dependent on the type. Membrane protein structures can be determined by X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy or NMR spectroscopy. The most common tertiary structures of these proteins are transmembrane helix bundle and beta barrel. The portion of the membrane proteins that are attached to the lipid bilayer (see annular lipid shell) consist mostly of hydrophobic amino acids. Membrane proteins which have hydrophobic surfaces, are relatively flexible and are expressed at relatively low levels. This creates difficulties in obtaining enough protein and then growing crystals. Hence, despite the significant functional importance of membrane proteins, determining atomic resolution structures for these proteins is more difficult than globular proteins. As of January 2013 less than 0.1% of protein structures determined were membrane proteins despite being 20–30% of the total proteome. Due to this difficulty and the importance of this class of proteins methods of protein structure prediction based on hydropathy plots, the positive inside rule and other methods have been developed. Transmembrane α-helical proteins are unusually stable judging from thermal denaturation studies, because they do not unfold completely within the membranes (the complete unfolding would require breaking down too many α-helical H-bonds in the nonpolar media). On the other hand, these proteins easily misfold, due to non-native aggregation in membranes, transition to the molten globule states, formation of non-native disulfide bonds, or unfolding of peripheral regions and nonregular loops that are locally less stable.

[ "Membrane", "Receptor", "Nuclear magnetic resonance", "Biochemistry", "Cell biology", "GHITM", "Collagen type XVII", "Transmembrane channels", "Osteoclast stimulatory transmembrane protein", "Heat stable enterotoxin receptor" ]
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