Proteoformák

Proteoformák refer to the different molecular forms that a single gene's protein product can take. This diversity arises from a variety of biological processes occurring after the initial transcription and translation. The primary source of proteoforms is post-translational modification (PTM), a vast array of chemical alterations that can occur on amino acid residues. These modifications include phosphorylation, glycosylation, acetylation, ubiquitination, and many others. Each PTM can dramatically alter a protein's structure, function, localization, and interactions with other molecules.

Alternative splicing of messenger RNA (mRNA) also contributes to proteoform generation. During this process, different combinations of exons can be included or excluded from the final mRNA transcript, leading to proteins with variations in their amino acid sequences. Even without PTMs or alternative splicing, some proteins can exist as different proteoforms due to variations in their folding, aggregation state, or association with other proteins. The collective set of all proteoforms encoded by a genome is known as the proteome. Understanding the diversity and dynamics of proteoforms is crucial for comprehending cellular function, disease mechanisms, and for the development of targeted therapies.