Observing the structures of proteins within the cell and tracking structural changes under different cellular conditions are the ultimate challenges for structural biology. This, however, requires an experimental technique that can generate sufficient data for structure determination and is applicable in the native environment of proteins. Crosslinking/mass spectrometry (CLMS) and protein structure determination have recently advanced to meet these requirements and crosslinking-driven de novo structure determination in native environments is now possible. In this opinion article, we highlight recent successes in the field of CLMS with protein structure modeling and challenges it still holds.

观察细胞内蛋白质的结构并跟踪不同细胞条件下的结构变化是结构生物学的终极挑战。然而，这需要一种实验技术，该技术可以为结构测定生成足够的数据，并且适用于蛋白质的天然环境。交联/质谱 (CLMS) 和蛋白质结构测定最近取得了进展，以满足这些要求，现在可以在天然环境中进行交联驱动的从头结构测定。在这篇意见文章中，我们重点介绍了 CLMS 领域最近在蛋白质结构建模方面取得的成功以及它仍然存在的挑战。