Probing the transient interaction between the small heat-shock protein Hsp21 and a model substrate protein using crosslinking mass spectrometry.
Small heat-shock protein chaperones are important players in the protein quality control system of the cell, because they can immediately respond to partially unfolded proteins, thereby protecting the cell from harmful aggregates. The small heat-shock proteins can form large polydisperse oligomers that are exceptionally dynamic, which is implicated in their function of protecting substrate protein