| *Overview* | Coiled coils are usually described as consisting of two up to seven α-helices that are wrapped around each other. They can associate as either homomeric or heteromeric structures and bind in parallel or antiparallel topologies. Another characteristic of all coiled coils is the periodic recurrence of a sequence [abcdefg]n called heptad repeat, where n denotes the heptad number. In these repeats, a and d are hydrophobic amino acids at core positions crucial for the tertiary structure. In contrast, the polar positions b, c, and f are hydrophilic and e and g are charged residues.
Due to their ability to oligomerize, coiled coils are involved in a variety of important cellular functions, either on their own or as part of... |
