Multifunctional Enzymes and Proteins: New Insights into Structure and Function

Dear Colleagues,

Multifunctional enzymes and proteins represent a crucial class of biomolecules whose actions extend beyond a single role. Increasing attention has been directed toward these molecules that perform diverse roles in cellular regulation, signaling, metabolism, and structural organization. They are often classified as moonlighting or promiscuous enzymes. Moonlighting enzymes possess at least one catalytic domain and an additional noncatalytic domain that execute independent functions. In contrast, promiscuous enzymes are defined by catalytic domains capable of performing distinct activities.

This Special Issue, Multifunctional Enzymes and Proteins: New Insights into Structure and Function, will gather cutting-edge research highlighting the complexity and versatility of these biomolecules and offering new perspectives on evolutionary innovation and biological efficiency. Importantly, dysfunction or misregulation of these versatile proteins is often implicated in diseases such as cancer, metabolic disorders, and neurodegeneration.

Understanding the structural determinants and mechanisms that allow a single polypeptide chain to perform multiple, seemingly unrelated functions is essential for advancing therapeutic and biotechnological applications. By integrating structural biology, biophysics, computational modeling, and biochemical approaches, this Special Issue will deepen our knowledge of multifunctional proteins and open new avenues for drug discovery, synthetic biology, and industrial biotechnology. 

Dr. Martina Buonanno
Dr. Paola Imbimbo
Dr. Fabiola Mascanzoni
Guest Editors

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