Chaperone-Bound Clients: The Importance of Being Dynamic

Several recent atomic-resolution studies have resolved how chaperones interact with their client proteins. In some cases, molecular chaperones recognize and bind their clients in conformational ensembles that are locally highly dynamic and interconvert, while in other cases clients bind in unique conformations. The presence of a locally dynamic client ensemble state has important consequences, both for the interpretation of experimental data and for the functionality of chaperones, as local dynamics facilitate rapid client release, folding on and from the chaperone surface, and client recognition without shape complementarity. Facilitated by the local dynamics, at least some chaperones appear to specifically recognize energetically frustrated sites of partially folded client proteins, such that the release of frustration contributes to the interaction affinity.