Challenges in Structural Investigation of Transient Protein-Protein Interactions

Receptor Tyrosine Kinases (RTKs) are transmembrane proteins that, upon stimulation by their soluble ligands dimerize or multimerize and autophosphorylate themselves on the cytoplasmic side and activate signal transduction pathways, which in turn trigger either nuclear, transcriptional responses or a cellular effect such as cytoskeletal remodeling. However, while the classical RTK pathway is well understood, the intracellular protein interaction events that lead to these responses are still not yet well understood.