Allostery is a widespread cause of loss-of-function variant pathogenicity

Abstract

Abstract Allosteric communication between non-contacting sites in proteins plays a fundamental role in biological regulation and drug action. While allosteric gain-of-function variants are known drivers of oncogene activation, the broader importance of allostery in genetic disease and protein evolution is less clear. Here, we introduce a comparative framework that disentangles functional disruption by mutations from protein destabilization. Applying this framework across diverse datasets—ranging from paired experimental measurements of abundance and activity to proteome-wide comparisons of evolutionary fitness and biophysical stability predictions—we provide evidence that allostery is a widespread cause of loss-of-function variant pathogenicity in human genetic diseases. In addition, our analyses reveal a conserved distance-dependent decay of allosteric mutational effects outside of protein active sites. As an important mechanism of pathogenicity, allostery needs to be better mapped, understood, and predicted across the human proteome.