Infographic: Short Protein Motifs' Role in SARS-CoV-2 Infection

In the early days of studying protein behavior, researchers recognized that large, structured protein domains often interacted with each other in a lock-and-key fashion, fitting together almost like puzzle pieces. Toward the end of the 20th century, however, the growing discovery of previously overlooked unstructured regions suggested that there was more to the story. One type of protein interaction mediated by the unstructured proteome involves short linear motifs (SLiMs), abundant stretches of up to 10 amino acids. Their interactions with other proteins are generally transient and weak, but SLiMs are nevertheless significant contributors to protein function and regulatory mechanisms in the cell.