Moonlighting proteins - an approach to systematize the concept

Abstract

Moonlighting refers to a protein with at least two unrelated, mechanistically different functions. As a concept, moonlighting describes a large and diverse group of proteins which have been discovered in a multitude of organisms. As of today, a systematized view on these proteins is missing. Here, we propose a classification of moonlighting proteins by two classifiers. We use the function of the protein as a first classifier: activating - activating (Type I), activating - inhibiting (Type II), inhibiting - activating (Type III) and inhibiting - inhibiting (Type IV). To further specify the type of moonlighting protein, we used a second classifier based on the character of the factor that switches the function of the protein: external factor affecting the protein (Type A), change in the first pathway (Type B), change in the second pathway (Type C), equal competition between both pathways (Type D). Using a small two-pathway model we simulated these types of moonlighting proteins to elucidate possible behaviors of the types of moonlighting proteins. We find that, using the results of our simulations, we can classify the behavior of the moonlighting types into Blinker, Splitter andSwitch.