Elastic fibers are an essential component of the extracellular matrix where they provide structural integrity and elastic recoil in a number of important tissues. A major constituent of these fibers is elastin, an insoluble metabolically stable polymer formed via extensive crosslinking of the monomeric precursor tropoelastin. Research over the past few decades has shown that tropoelastin possesses unique structural features that differ from both intrinsically disordered and globular proteins. This review details the advances in our understanding of tropoelastin's structural properties and illustrates how these dictate its biological function.

中文翻译：

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弹性蛋白架构。

弹性纤维是细胞外基质的重要组成部分，它们在许多重要组织中提供结构完整性和弹性回缩。这些纤维的主要成分是弹性蛋白，它是通过单体前体原弹性蛋白的广泛交联形成的不溶的代谢稳定聚合物。过去几十年的研究表明，原弹性蛋白具有独特的结构特征，与固有的无序蛋白和球形蛋白不同。这篇综述详细介绍了我们对原弹性蛋白的结构特性的了解，并说明了这些特性如何决定其生物学功能。