Protein Fun Facts

Do you know anything interesting about proteins, user?

I know one:
>Nitrogenase has Calcium in its molecular structure, however Calcium is also used as an inhibitor of Nitrogenase

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GroEL
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_shock_protein#Role_as_chaperone
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

A single nucleotide polymorphism is the difference between regular heme and sickle cell heme.

Simple (small) proteins are not the fastest proteins to fold per se.

The common notion of proteins as rigid entities is wrong. They are in constant dynamic motion.

post more OP

Too lazy to visualize other proteins, but here's a fact about this protein

>Myoglobin is related to Hemoglobin. However Hemoglobin has 4 hemes where as Myoglobin is only 1 heme.
>Myoglobin is about 24-25 times more effective than Hemoglobin because myoglobin stores oxygen, whereas hemoglobin carries it

Protein folding is a spontaneous process which begins in the ribosomal exit tunnel.

'Spontaneous' meaning that folding relies solely upon:

>amino acid sequence
>chemical environment of the ribosomal exit tunnel (during folding)
>chemical environment outside of the ribosomal exit tunnel (after folding)

There aren't any robots that put together proteins. They fold themselves!

Aren't there cofactors that "guide" the folding into a certain tertiary (or quartenary) structure?

what are you using to visualize them?

Jmol, it's a neat and easy program to use. You need java to run it though. If you're looking for a specific protein to visualize use the official PDB (Protein Data Bank) website

Yes, and there are also chaperones.
Hsps, groEL/ES
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GroEL
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_shock_protein#Role_as_chaperone

Researchers have found that a mutation in a specific protein may raise the risk of autism. Specifically, when a protein called the Shank3 protein mutates, it leads to defects in neuron-neuron communication.

Proteins can have bizarre names. For example, the protein Pikachurin is a retinal protein that was named after a Pokémon character Pikachu. The protein Sonic Hedgehog was named after Sonic the Hedgehog. A blue protein is named Ranasmurfin, after the Smurfs.

1/9 of the world population will die from a mutation in the protein Ras (leading to cancer).

Without a protein called Albumin, the entire human body would swell.

A protein in semen acts on the female brain to prompt ovulation.

Approximately 18-20% of the body is protein by weight.

Rubisco, an enzyme involved in the Calvin cycle, used to be the most abundant protein on earth. Collagen has now taken its place as a result of intensive animal farming.

Funnily enough this other protein in neurons, Sepiapterin Reductase, is what keeps your body from becoming fully paralyzed

There's also "cheap date". Mutations in the gene coding this protein lead to alcohol insensitivity.

Human meat is a good source of high-quality protein

One typical human male ejaculation contains about 150 mg of protein.

you have a very misguided notion of proteins
>nitrogenase
>it has calcium in its molecular structure
>calcium as an inhibitor
...

all of these statements contain errors in their own ways

Jesus christ, is this how biologists are educated

I've written my MSc thesis on the electronic structure details of a certain enzyme and hell, your understanding of these mechanisms seems extremely superficial
one contains 1 heme while the other 4... are you kidding me? What kind of approach is that?
We were fucking working on how Inter-System Crossing probabilities gave rise to reactions which wouldn't normally be possible via certain transition metals in the active site and you
I'm disappointed yet again

Bad news having malformed proteins.

shut up nerd

Do you need to be asked to explain?

Calm down. Most of the posters here are probably 1st years or high-schoolers.
It's a friendly protein thread, so post friendly protein related things.
Speaking of chaperones does anybody know if they all fold easily? Or are there chaperones which require chaperones?