New Insights into the Diversity, Structure, Function and Evolution of Pore-Forming Toxins
A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2024 | Viewed by 1387
Special Issue Editor
Interests: molecular evolution; adaptive evolution of toxins; evolution of animal toxin multigene families; functional diversification after gene duplication; PLA2 and BPTI neurotoxins; phylogenomic analysis of protein superfamilies; structure–function relationships; regulatory evolution; genome evolution
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Pore-forming proteins (PFPs) are found in all kingdoms of life and are involved in host–pathogen interactions. In most cases, they are used as pore-forming toxins (PFTs) to either attack and invade other organisms or defend against them. As such, they can be found in many pathogenic bacteria as well as in animal venom. However, those that do not act as toxins are involved in other physiological processes, such as the proper functionality of the immune system, neuronal development, or the digestion of food. PFPs are a broad class of molecules that comprise various families, structural folds, and assembly pathways. A comparison between the types of PFTs reveals that the pore-forming domain is a common module, yet the receptor-binding domain is highly variable. The PFTs produced by different organisms target distinct host membranes by interacting with membrane sugars, lipids, and protein receptors or receptor-like molecules by recognizing specific structural motifs. These structural and architectural variations lead to differences in target recognition and determine the site of activity. PFTs have evolved recognition mechanisms to bind specific receptors that define their host tropism, although this can be remarkably diverse even within the same family. In the past decade, advances in this field have revealed in detail the astonishing complexity of the architecture and dynamics of PFTs, and significant progress has been made in the mechanistic description of pore formation in the different families. The focus of this Special Issue of Toxins will be on all aspects of pore-forming toxins, presenting the latest discoveries regarding their diversity, structure, function, and evolution, to provide readers with an up-to-date and comprehensive picture of this exciting area of research.
Dr. Dušan Kordiš
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- pore-forming toxins
- structure–function relationship
- evolution
- protein architecture
- protein superfamilies
