Recent advances in structural studies of 14-3-3 protein complexes

Being phosphopeptide-binding hubs, 14-3-3 proteins coordinate multiple cellular processes in eukaryotes, including the regulation of apoptosis, cell cycle, ion channels trafficking, transcription, signal transduction, and hormone biosynthesis. Forming constitutive α-helical dimers, 14-3-3 proteins predominantly recognize specifically phosphorylated Ser/Thr sites within their partners; this generally stabilizes phosphotarget conformation and affects its activity, intracellular distribution, dephosphorylation, degradation and interactions with other proteins. Not surprisingly, 14-3-3 complexes are involved in the development of a range of diseases and are considered promising drug targets. The wide interactome of 14-3-3 proteins encompasses hundreds of different phosphoproteins, for many of which the interaction is well-documented in vitro and in vivo but lack the structural data that would help better understand underlying regulatory mechanisms and develop new drugs. Despite obtaining structural information on 14-3-3 complexes is still lagging behind the research of 14-3-3 interactions on a proteome-wide scale, recent works provided some advances, including methodological improvements and accumulation of new interesting structural data, that are discussed in this review.