Introduction to new views of allostery

The term “allostery” was coined in 1961 by two illustrious pioneers of molecular biology, Monod and Jacob¹, who discussed the inhibition of an enzyme by a compound that is not a substrate. The term was later adopted to encompass all cases where coupling between distant sites of a biomacromolecule, related to either tertiary or quaternary structure elements, affects the biological function.² The topic thus has a long history. However, thanks to the progress in both experimental and theoretical methodologies, the past decade has seen revolutionary changes in our understanding of the scope and nature of allosteric interactions. This Special Issue covers many aspects of this impressive progress.