Coiled-coil deformations in crystal structures: the measles virus phosphoprotein multimerization domain as an illustrative example

Structural comparison among three crystal forms of the measles virus phosphoprotein multimerization domain unveiled significant discrepancies in the quaternary structure. Results indicate that coiled coils are less rigid than previously thought and challenge to some extent the assumption according to which coiled-coil structures can be reliably predicted from the amino-acid sequence.