Insights into peptide and protein function: A convergent approach

From viruses to multicellular organisms, life is inseparable from the genet ic instructions aimed at regulating its maintenance, division, multiplicati on, differentiation and death (apoptosis). Over the past 15 years, structur al studies have begun to resolve the complex reactions involved in these fu ndamental processes in biology. The three-dimensional representations of th e complexes formed with peptides and/or proteins have allowed interpretatio n of the biochemical data and formulation of novel hypotheses about the con trol and execution of these processes. Moreover, they have opened the way t o rational approaches for designing compounds able to interfere with these crucial events in normal or pathological conditions. Various results obtain ed in our laboratory in these fields are briefly summarized in this review. Copyright (C) 2001 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.