Functional flexibility in bacterial hub proteins is driven by proteome expansion (opens in new tab)

Protein-protein interaction networks play a key role in the living cells, with hub proteins (hubs) acting as central nodes in the transmission of biological signals. The features enabling hubs to interact with other proteins in bacteria remain unexplored. We present the first cross-phylum analysis of bacterial hubs using AlphaFold and IUPred. Hubs exhibit higher levels of intrinsic disorder compared to whole proteomes. In contrast to the highly structured proteomes of obligate pathogens, prot...