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News Release 05-177
Team Scores a Success in Protein Folding
Experiment bears out computer predictions of large, complex protein shape
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Studies at Rice University were carried out on a protein known as MLAc, a variant of the protein used by the bacterium E. coli to regulate its system for metabolizing lactose, the sugar found in milk. This image gives an artist's impression of MLAc in the process of folding. Like all proteins, MLAc consists of a chain of smaller building-block molecules known as amino acids--about 360 of them in this case. They are depicted here like beads on a string. This chain, in turn, twists and turns to create larger subunits known as "domains," which are depicted here in different colors.
Credit: Corey J. Wilson, Cecilia Clementi, Payel Das, Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, and Kathleen Matthews
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