Chapter category: Cell Metabolism

The Lipocalin Protein Family: Perspectives for Future Research

This chapter appears in the following book:

Lipocalins

Edited by: Bo Åkerström, Niels Borregaard, Darren R. Flower and Jean-Philippe Salier
ISBN: 1-58706-297-6
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Chapter authors:
Darren R. Flower and Arne Skerra

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Lipocalinology, as a discipline, has been with us for more or less twenty years. After an initial period of exciting, if capricious, growth, study of the lipocalin protein family has now entered a period of solid and significant maturity. The modern era of lipocalin research is marked by the astonishing and burgeoning diversity of function currently becoming apparent among members of this remarkable family. The lipocalins are, perhaps, best known to those outside the field for two notable properties. First, the simplicity and aesthetic appeal of their highly symmetrical b-barrel fold. Secondly, and more significantly, is the seeming paradox of their low sequence conservation, which stands in marked contrast to their high structural propinquity.1 While it is now clear that neither property is unique to the lipocalins, nonetheless the family remains noteworthy for several reasons. Three kinds of intriguing molecular recognition events have long been seen to characterize the lipocalins: small molecule binding within the intra-calyx cavity, macromolecular complex formation, and receptor binding. Deep insights have been gained into these properties, and it is clear that we still understand structural and biophysical aspects of the lipocalins better than we grasp their physiological role and thus their place in biology. While it is true that lipocalinists have now catalogued many important physiological functions, much of biological significance remains to be discovered. However, gone are the days when the family could be dismissed as a small group of obscure transporters of hydrophobic molecules. Lipocalins are important proteins doing important things, not only in the delivery of essential metabolic compounds but also in cellular signalling or as part of the innate immune response, to name just a few examples. However, the link between their molecular recognition properties and their function is not always obvious. Biological function, itself, can remain cryptic. The underlying coherence of the apparently separate biochemical activities of individual lipocalins can appear obscure. Nonetheless, in the time since the first definitive review of the family was written,1 our view of the lipocalin family has changed dramatically. Important strides are being made and will continue to be made, and it is the future perspectives for lipocalin research that forms the focus of this chapter. Specifically, we will endeavour to throw light upon the way that certain recent developments will shape the future of lipocalin research.

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Chapter category: Cell Metabolism

The Lipocalin Protein Family: Perspectives for Future Research

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