All proteins are made of basic secondary structure units, either α-helix or β-sheets, determined by hydrogen bonding between the amino acids within a peptide chain. On a larger scale, structures are ...

How did life originate? Ancient proteins may hold important clues. Every organism on Earth is made up of proteins. Although all organisms—even single-celled ones—have complex protein structures now, ...

Researchers found a rare example of an ancient protein that can still function in a molecular mirror world – offering new clues about the evolutionary history of proteins that bind to nucleic acids.

Capping protein (CP) has critical roles in actin assembly in vivo and in vitro. CP binds with high affinity to the barbed end of actin filaments, blocking the addition and loss of actin subunits.

Cells assemble protein networks through regions of protein recognition that are found in numerous proteins as conserved peptide motifs. This allows for the specific and efficient communication of ...

It is difficult to underestimate the importance of telomerase, an enzyme that is the hallmark of both aging and the uncontrolled cell division associated with cancer. In an effort to understand and ...

In a recent study posted to the bioRxiv* preprint server, researchers performed a ProP-PD (proteomic peptide phage display) analysis to identify peptides from intrinsically disordered human (host) ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Synthetic biology author. This article is more than 4 years old. Motif’s prolamin technology in action via a plant-based cheese ...

The first three proteins from Motif FoodWorks’ fermentation-based food ingredient platform will be ready for launch in early 2021, says the company, one of a new breed of synthetic biology companies ...

A study has found that an ancient protein motif that binds to nucleic acids is functionally "ambidextrous." This means that the motif can interact with both natural and mirror-image nucleic acids, an ...