Fusion protein



 It has been suggested that Recombinant fusion proteins, Chimera (protein) be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)


Fusion proteins, also known as chimeric proteins, are proteins created through the joining of two or more genes which originally coded for separate proteins. Translation of this fusion gene results in a single mutation, typically a chromosomal translocation, creates a novel coding sequence containing parts of the coding sequences from two different genes. Naturally occurring fusion proteins are important in cancer, where they may function as oncoproteins. The bcr-abl fusion protein is a well-known example of an oncogenic fusion protein, and is considered to be the primary oncogenic driver of chronic myelogenous leukemia.

Properties of fusion proteins

The functionality of fusion proteins is made possible by the fact that many enzymatic capability.

Recombinant fusion proteins

A recombinant fusion protein is a ligation or overlap extension PCR. That DNA sequence will then be expressed by a cell as a single protein. The protein can be engineered to include the full sequence of both original proteins, or only a portion of either.

If the two entities are proteins, often linker (or "spacer") peptides are also added which make it more likely that the proteins fold independently and behave as expected. Especially in the case where the linkers enable affinity chromatography). Chimeric proteins can also be manufactured with toxins or anti-bodies attached to them in order to study disease development.

Chimeric protein drugs

Several Adalimumab.

Naturally occurring fusion proteins

Naturally occurring fusion genes are most commonly created when a chromosomal translocation replaces the terminal translated to produce a functional fusion protein. Many important cancer-promoting oncogenes are fusion genes produced in this way.

Examples include:

  • Gag-onc fusion protein
  • Bcr-abl fusion protein
  • Tpr-met fusion protein

See also

 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Fusion_protein". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.