letters, in comparison to the poorer four letters code of nucleic
acids, could play much more characters in the life programme.
Notwithstanding, proteins appeared to be downgraded in a
second row by the explosion of nucleic acids research and importance, as proven by the relative number of paper published, and by
the fall of impact factors attributed to protein structure-functiondevoted journals.
In these days, however, most likely to what happens with
fashion, proteins are regaining a central role, thanks to rediscovery
of an old concept, namely allostery. Allostery is again a Greekderived word: αλλoσ (allos) ¼ different and στερεoσ (stereos) ¼ solid
(object). Allostery is a term created by the team of Jacques Monod
at the Institute Pasteur just more than 50 years ago.
As Jean-Pierre Changeux put it: the history and significance of
the word “allosteric” is directly associated with the 1961 26th Cold
Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology entitled “Cellular regulatory mechanisms.” The word “allosteric” was not orally
pronounced during the meeting. It appeared for the first time in
the printed version of the Proceedings: in the General Discussion
written by Monod and Jacob as a conclusion of the meeting [15].
Nowadays, the term “allosteric” appears in more than 24,000
articles since the famous “number one” [16].
Among this ocean of scientific literature, there are several
recent reviews [17–22] that render almost worthless any effort of
writing a new one. But at least two articles deserve special mention
for their significance in the development of the field, both
connected with the evergreen model allosteric molecule, i.e.,
hemoglobin. The first, seminal for the quantitative treatment of
allostery [23], was written by the two French researchers of Pasteur
Institute, Jacques Monod and Jean Paul Changeux, and by an
American scientist, Jeffries Wyman, who after wandering in USA,
Europe, and Middle East found a convenient and comfortable
niche in the Rome University at the Institute of Biological Chemistry. This apparently odd choice of him, who had a chair at Harvard,
was due, besides the fascination of the Eternal City, to the presence
in the Biochemistry Institute of the University (at those times the
only one present in Rome) of two outstanding personalities: Alessandro Rossi Fanelli and Eraldo Antonini, both of them, together
with their coworkers, already renowned for their studies on hemoglobin and the cognate protein myoglobin. So, it was not by chance
or by preposterous self-esteem that hemoglobin gained the nickname “Roman molecule.”
Anyhow, hemoglobin is by far the most studied allosteric protein and is a reference for every polymeric protein showing this kind
of behavior, i.e., to change its activity upon binding at some distant
site an effector molecule. Soon after the publication of the so-called
MWC paper [23], Perutz gave structural ground to the theory
[24]. Nonetheless, this theory was debated even among the same
Allostery: The Rebound of Proteins
3
acids, could play much more characters in the life programme.
Notwithstanding, proteins appeared to be downgraded in a
second row by the explosion of nucleic acids research and importance, as proven by the relative number of paper published, and by
the fall of impact factors attributed to protein structure-functiondevoted journals.
In these days, however, most likely to what happens with
fashion, proteins are regaining a central role, thanks to rediscovery
of an old concept, namely allostery. Allostery is again a Greekderived word: αλλoσ (allos) ¼ different and στερεoσ (stereos) ¼ solid
(object). Allostery is a term created by the team of Jacques Monod
at the Institute Pasteur just more than 50 years ago.
As Jean-Pierre Changeux put it: the history and significance of
the word “allosteric” is directly associated with the 1961 26th Cold
Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology entitled “Cellular regulatory mechanisms.” The word “allosteric” was not orally
pronounced during the meeting. It appeared for the first time in
the printed version of the Proceedings: in the General Discussion
written by Monod and Jacob as a conclusion of the meeting [15].
Nowadays, the term “allosteric” appears in more than 24,000
articles since the famous “number one” [16].
Among this ocean of scientific literature, there are several
recent reviews [17–22] that render almost worthless any effort of
writing a new one. But at least two articles deserve special mention
for their significance in the development of the field, both
connected with the evergreen model allosteric molecule, i.e.,
hemoglobin. The first, seminal for the quantitative treatment of
allostery [23], was written by the two French researchers of Pasteur
Institute, Jacques Monod and Jean Paul Changeux, and by an
American scientist, Jeffries Wyman, who after wandering in USA,
Europe, and Middle East found a convenient and comfortable
niche in the Rome University at the Institute of Biological Chemistry. This apparently odd choice of him, who had a chair at Harvard,
was due, besides the fascination of the Eternal City, to the presence
in the Biochemistry Institute of the University (at those times the
only one present in Rome) of two outstanding personalities: Alessandro Rossi Fanelli and Eraldo Antonini, both of them, together
with their coworkers, already renowned for their studies on hemoglobin and the cognate protein myoglobin. So, it was not by chance
or by preposterous self-esteem that hemoglobin gained the nickname “Roman molecule.”
Anyhow, hemoglobin is by far the most studied allosteric protein and is a reference for every polymeric protein showing this kind
of behavior, i.e., to change its activity upon binding at some distant
site an effector molecule. Soon after the publication of the so-called
MWC paper [23], Perutz gave structural ground to the theory
[24]. Nonetheless, this theory was debated even among the same
Allostery: The Rebound of Proteins
3