Estimating intrinsic structural preferences of de novo emerging random-sequence proteins: Is aggregation the main bottleneck?

► De novo emergence of proteins is modeled using translated random DNA sequences. ► Aggregation, disorder and transmembrane propensities estimated with consensus methods. ► GC-content of underlying DNA governs structural preferences of random proteins. ► Extant proteins have more transmembrane segments than random ones. ► Disorder and aggregation of random proteins is in the range observed for extant ones.