CCMB scientists discover proteins flexibility, could lead to new advances in medicine

Scientists at the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) have shown that proteins do not always rely on their fixed three-dimensional shape for function, but their structures are flexible to carry out multiple tasks.

These findings have the potential to pave the way for new advances in medicine, agriculture and biotechnology in helping scientists to design proteins that can multitask more efficiently, said an official release on Wednesday.

In a latest study, scientists — Mandar V. Deshmukh, Debadutta Patra and Jaydeep Paul — using a powerful Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and computational methods, have detected tiny populations of protein structures (just 1%) that switch into different shapes for short periods.

These rare shifts are vital for recognising different RNA forms and help explain how plants manage complex gene control. “What we have shown is that a protein’s ability to change shape, even slightly, can be just as important as its structure,” said lead author Mr. Deshmukh.

“By capturing the fleeting, dynamic states of these proteins, we have shown that their ability to rearrange their structure transiently gives them a functional edge in complex cellular environments,” he said. “This enables organisms to regulate genes efficiently under varying conditions and could change the way we think about designing new medicines or improving plant traits,” added the scientist.

The study shows how subtle changes in a protein’s sequence can lead to significant differences in function, emphasising the need for a combined study of both structure and dynamics, particularly for proteins that are drug targets.

“Our results reveal nature’s originality in designing a unique approach to grant promiscuity to a few proteins,” remarked joint first authors of the study Mr. Patra and Mr. Paul. This study, published in the latest issue of ‘Journal of the American Chemical Society’, also offers a plausible explanation for how plants fine-tune RNA processing without expanding their protein repertoire, added the press release.