Abstract
Over the last 12 years or so, a group of posttranslational modifications of proteins with various lipid molecules has been identified in eukaryotic cells (for reviews see Schmidt 1989; McIlhinney 1990; Gordon et al. 1991; Magee 1991). In many cases these modifications have been shown to be essential for the subcellular localization of the proteins carrying them. Many intracellular proteins are now known to carry fatty acid modifications which serve such a purpose. The 14 carbon saturated fatty acid myris-tate (C14:0) is amide-linked to the NH2-terminal of a range of proteins, exemplified by the pp60src proto-oncogene product. Site-directed mutagenesis has been used to demonstrate that this acylation is required both for membrane localization and transforming activity. The myristoylation enzyme has been isolated and is highly specific for acyl chain length. Inhibitors which interfere with this pathway provide an attractive approach to specific chemotherapies of cancers and viral infections including HIV.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Casey PJ, Solski PA, Der CJ, Buss JE (1989) p2lras is modified by a farnesyl isoprenoid. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 86: 8323–8327.
Goldstein JL, Brown MS (1990) Regulation of the mevalonate pathway. Nature 343: 425–430.
Gordon JI, Duronio RJ, Rudnick DA, Adams SP, Gokel GW (1991) Protein N-myristoylation. J Biol Chem 266: 8647–8650.
Magee AI (1990) Lipid modification of proteins and its relevance to protein targeting.J Cell Sci 97: 581–584.
Magee AI, Courtneidge SA (1985) Two classes of fatty acylated proteins exist in eukaryotic cells. EMBO J 4:1137–1144.
Magee AI, Gutierrez L, McKay IA, Marshall, CJ, Hall A (1987) Dynamic fatty acylation of p21N-ras. EMBO J 6: 3353–3357.
Magee T and Newman C (1992) The role of lipid anchors for small G proteins in membrane trafficking. Trends Cell Biol 2: 318–323.
McIlhinney RAJ (1990) The fats of life: the importance and function of protein acylation.Trends Biochem Sci 15: 387–391.
Schafer WR, Rine J (1992) Protein prenylation: genes, enzymes, targets and functions. Annu Rev Genet 30: 209–237.
Schmidt MFG (1989) Fatty acylation of proteins. Biochim Biophys Acta 988: 411–426.
Sinensky M, Lutz RJ (1992) The prenylation of proteins. BioEssays 14: 25–31
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Giannakouros, T.G. (1997). Lipid Modifications of Proteins. In: Kamp, R.M., Choli-Papadopoulou, T., Wittmann-Liebold, B. (eds) Protein Structure Analysis. Springer Lab Manual. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59219-5_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59219-5_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-47765-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-59219-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive