New Technology provides a deep view into protein structures
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - 00:00
in Physics & Chemistry
Proteins consist of a sequence of amino acids and have important physiological functions, such as catalysis or transport of metabolic products. To perform their physiological role, proteins need to fold their linear amino acid chains into a stable three-dimensional structure. In part, the spatial arrangement is determined by a network of hydrogen bonds. However so far it was unclear to what extent individual hydrogen bonds contribute to the stability of a structure. Using a newly developed high pressure cell and NMR method scientists have, for the first time, completely characterize the stability of individual hydrogen bonds in the protein Ubiquitin.