allosteric

1 9.8

A change in an enzyme or protein when a molecule attaches to a different site and changes its activity

adjective
/ˌæl.əˈstɛr.ɪk/

Specialized

: alostérico

I was wondering if this was conceptually similar to NMR—not that I've ever heard of NMR inducing specific allosteric effects in individual proteins in live tissue, of course.

Examples

Researchers discovered that allosteric interactions can modify a protein's function.
So exactly what is shown here is allosteric regulation.
Now this regulation we discussed is often done at the allosteric level by controlling enzyme rates.
The study focused on allosteric regulation of enzymes beyond just the active site.
Many medications are designed to intervene with allosteric sites on proteins.

Surface Forms

allosteric positive

Morphology

allosteric = allostery (opaque) = allo + steric + ic

Forming an adjective from the noun 'allostery' with the productive suffix '-ic' is a regular and transparent morphological step.

Etymology

Allosteric comes from Greek parts allo- 'other' and -steric 'place' or 'position', so it literally means 'at another place'. That's a helpful way to remember it: an allosteric molecule binds at a different site on a protein and so changes how the protein works.