The Evolutionary Mapping of Intrinsic Disorder and Evolved Protein Multi-functionality (Commentary)

The evolution of human society over the course of decades and centuries has led to an ever-increasingly complex modern life, one of the hallmark of which is the need for multi-tasking, both individually and collectively. Does this macroscopic evolution of the human societal dynamics have an empirical mapping to the microscopic evolution of the functional molecular units within cells and their manifold cross-talks? The relatively new wealth of knowledge coming from recent research on protein intrinsic disorder, fold-switching, domain shuffling, moonlighting, hub proteins etc. has given us new insights into the relationship between protein structure and function. This has led to a paradigm shift in protein science, clearly diverging from the traditional idea of 'one sequence – one structure – one function' to a more complex understanding of protein functionality. This paradigm shift has caused scientists to delve deeper into the subject, exploring the philosophical as well as the scientific basis of evolved protein multi-functionality, expressed by various evolutionary toys and tools to fit the cumulative multi-functional requirements within proteins. This commentary covers the different evolutionary arsenals to achieve the growing multi-functionality and attempts to connect intrinsic disorder in proteins as probably the sharpest weapon of all.