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Sm proteins were discovered nearly 20 years ago as a group of small antigenic proteins ($approx$ 90-120 residues). Since then, an extensive amount of biochemical and genetic data have illuminated the crucial roles of these proteins in forming ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes that are used in RNA processing, e.g., spliceosomal removal of introns from pre-mRNAs. Spliceosomes are large macromolecular machines that are comparable to ribosomes in size and complexity, and are composed of uridine-rich small nuclear RNPs (U snRNPs). Various sets of seven different Sm proteins form the cores of most snRNPs. Despite their importance, very little is known about the atomic-resolution structure of snRNPs or their Sm cores. As a first step towards a high-resolution image of snRNPs and their hierarchic assembly, we have determined the crystal structures of archaeal homologs of Sm proteins, which we term Sm-like archaeal proteins (SmAPs).
Knots in proteins have been proposed to resist proteasomal degradation. Ample evidence associates proteasomal degradation with neurodegeneration. One interesting possibility is that indeed knotted conformers stall this machinery leading to toxicity.
Most biological processes are described as a series of interactions between proteins and other molecules, and interactions are in turn described in terms of atomic structures. To annotate protein functions as sets of interaction states at atomic reso
Protein molecules can be approximated by discrete polygonal chains of amino acids. Standard topological tools can be applied to the smoothening of the polygons to introduce a topological classification of proteins, for example, using the self-linking
We analytically derive the lower bound of the total conformational energy of a protein structure by assuming that the total conformational energy is well approximated by the sum of sequence-dependent pairwise contact energies. The condition for the n
We perform theoretical studies of stretching of 20 proteins with knots within a coarse grained model. The knots ends are found to jump to well defined sequential locations that are associated with sharp turns whereas in homopolymers they diffuse arou