Perspective abstract


Nature Cell Biology 6, 3 - 7 (2004)
doi:10.1038/ncb0104-3

Controlling Abl: auto-inhibition and co-inhibition?

Jean Y. J. Wang1


Auto-inhibition describes the capacity of proteins to adopt a self-imposed latent conformation. Recently, a crystal structure of the Abl tyrosine kinase has revealed its ability to auto-inhibit. However, a separate body of work suggests that other cellular proteins also inhibit Abl. To reconcile the crystal structure with Abl inhibitors, I propose that Abl is controlled by cellular 'co-inhibitors' that bind Abl, stabilizing the auto-inhibited conformation. The implication of co-inhibition on Abl function is discussed.

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  1. Jean Y. J. Wang is in the Section of Molecular Biology, Division of Biological Sciences and the Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0322, USA.
    e-mail: jywang@ucsd.edu


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