Crystal structures of all-alpha type membrane proteins.

Integral membrane proteins are involved in a wide range of essential biological functions and the determination of their three-dimensional structures plays a central role in understanding their function. This review focuses on the structures of one class of integral membrane proteins: the functionally diverse all-alpha type membrane proteins. It gives an overview of all the structures determined by X-ray crystallography, describing each system and structure in turn. It shows that the structures of all-alpha type membrane proteins have made valuable contributions to understanding structure-function relationships in membrane proteins. These range from the first insights into the function of exciting individual proteins to an in-depth knowledge of protein function from entire biological systems.