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Protein

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Protein



 
 
Proteins are organic compound
Organic compound

An organic compound is any member of a large class of chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of compounds such as carbonates, simple oxides of carbon and cyanides, as well as the allotropes of carbon, are considered Inorganic compound....
s made of amino acid
Amino acid

In chemistry, an amino acid is a molecule containing both amine and carboxyl functional groups. These molecules are particularly important in biochemistry, where this term refers to alpha-amino acids with the general formula H2NCHRCOOH, where R is an organic substituent....
s arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bond
Peptide bond

A peptide bond is a chemical bond formed between two molecules when the carboxyl group of one molecule reacts with the amine group of the other molecule, thereby releasing a molecule of water ....
s between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid residues
Residue (chemistry)

In chemistry, residue refers to the material remaining after a distillation or an evaporation, or to a portion of a larger molecule, such as a methyl group....
. The sequence of amino acids in a protein is defined by the sequence
DNA sequence

A DNA sequence or genetic sequence is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, with the capacity to carry information as described by the central dogma of molecular biology....
 of a gene
Gene

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cell and pass genetic trait to offspring....
, which is encoded in the genetic code
Genetic code

The genetic code is the set of rules by which information encoded in genetic material is Translation into proteins by living cell s. The code defines a mapping between tri-nucleotide sequences, called codons, and amino acids....
. In general, the genetic code specifies 20 standard amino acids, however in certain organisms the genetic code can include selenocysteine
Selenocysteine

Selenocysteine is an amino acid that is present in several enzymes ....
 - and in certain archaea
Archaea

The Archaea are a group of single-celled microorganisms. A single individual or species from this domain is called an archaeon . Archaea, like bacteria, are prokaryotic....
 - pyrrolysine
Pyrrolysine

Pyrrolysine is a naturally occurring, genetically coded amino acid used by some methanogenic archaea in enzymes that are part of their methane-producing metabolism....
.






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Myoglobin
Proteins are organic compound
Organic compound

An organic compound is any member of a large class of chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of compounds such as carbonates, simple oxides of carbon and cyanides, as well as the allotropes of carbon, are considered Inorganic compound....
s made of amino acid
Amino acid

In chemistry, an amino acid is a molecule containing both amine and carboxyl functional groups. These molecules are particularly important in biochemistry, where this term refers to alpha-amino acids with the general formula H2NCHRCOOH, where R is an organic substituent....
s arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bond
Peptide bond

A peptide bond is a chemical bond formed between two molecules when the carboxyl group of one molecule reacts with the amine group of the other molecule, thereby releasing a molecule of water ....
s between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid residues
Residue (chemistry)

In chemistry, residue refers to the material remaining after a distillation or an evaporation, or to a portion of a larger molecule, such as a methyl group....
. The sequence of amino acids in a protein is defined by the sequence
DNA sequence

A DNA sequence or genetic sequence is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, with the capacity to carry information as described by the central dogma of molecular biology....
 of a gene
Gene

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cell and pass genetic trait to offspring....
, which is encoded in the genetic code
Genetic code

The genetic code is the set of rules by which information encoded in genetic material is Translation into proteins by living cell s. The code defines a mapping between tri-nucleotide sequences, called codons, and amino acids....
. In general, the genetic code specifies 20 standard amino acids, however in certain organisms the genetic code can include selenocysteine
Selenocysteine

Selenocysteine is an amino acid that is present in several enzymes ....
 - and in certain archaea
Archaea

The Archaea are a group of single-celled microorganisms. A single individual or species from this domain is called an archaeon . Archaea, like bacteria, are prokaryotic....
 - pyrrolysine
Pyrrolysine

Pyrrolysine is a naturally occurring, genetically coded amino acid used by some methanogenic archaea in enzymes that are part of their methane-producing metabolism....
. The residues in a protein are often observed to be chemically modified by post-translational modification, which can happen either before the protein is used in the cell
Cell (biology)

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known Life organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building bricks of life....
, or as part of control mechanisms. Proteins can also work together to achieve a particular function, and they often associate to form stable complex
Protein complex

A multiprotein complex is a group of two or more proteins. Protein complexes are a form of quaternary structure. Proteins in a protein complex are linked by non-covalent protein-protein interactions, and different protein complexes have different degrees of stability over time....
es.

Like other biological macromolecules such as polysaccharide
Polysaccharide

Polysaccharides are relatively complex carbohydrates. They are polymers made up of many monosaccharides joined together by glycosidic bonds. They are therefore very large, often branched, macromolecules....
s and nucleic acid
Nucleic acid

A nucleic acid is a macromolecule composed of chains of monomeric nucleotides. In biochemistry these molecules carry genetic information or form structures within Cell ....
s, proteins are essential parts of organisms and participate in every process within cell
Cell (biology)

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known Life organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building bricks of life....
s. Many proteins are enzyme
Enzyme

Enzymes are biomolecules that catalysis chemical reactions. Almost all enzymes are proteins. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called Substrate , and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, the products....
s that catalyze
Catalysis

Catalysis is the process in which the reaction rate of a chemical reaction is either increased or decreased by means of a chemical substance known as a catalyst....
 biochemical reactions and are vital to metabolism
Metabolism

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms in order to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments....
. Proteins also have structural or mechanical functions, such as actin
Actin

Actin is a Globular_protein, roughly 42-kDa protein found in all Eukaryote where it may be present at concentrations of over 100 ?M. It is also one of the most highly-Conservation proteins, differing by no more than 20% in species as diverse as algae and humans....
 and myosin
Myosin

Myosins are a large family of motor proteins found in eukaryotic Biological tissue. They are responsible for actin-based motility.Following the discovery, by Pollard and Korn, of enzymes with myosin-like function in Acanthamoeba, a large number of divergent myosin genes have been discovered throughout eukaryotes....
 in muscle and the proteins in the cytoskeleton
Cytoskeleton

The cytoskeleton is a cellular "scaffolding" or "skeleton" contained within the cytoplasm. The cytoskeleton is present in all cells; it was once thought this structure was unique to eukaryotes, but recent research has identified the prokaryotic cytoskeleton....
, which form a system of scaffolding
Scaffolding

Scaffolding is a temporary framework used to support people and material in the construction or repair of buildings and other large structures....
 that maintains cell shape. Other proteins are important in cell signaling
Cell signaling

Cell signaling is part of a complex system of communication that governs basic cellular activities and coordinates cell actions. The ability of cells to perceive and correctly respond to their microenvironment is the basis of development, tissue repair, and immunity as well as normal tissue homeostasis....
, immune response
Antibody

Antibodies are gamma globulin proteins that are found in blood or other bodily fluids of vertebrates, and are used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects, such as bacterium and viruses....
s, cell adhesion
Cell adhesion

Cellular adhesion is the binding of a cell to another cell or to a surface or extracellular matrix. Cellular adhesion is regulated by specific cell adhesion molecules that interact with other molecules....
, and the cell cycle
Cell cycle

The cell cycle, or cell-division cycle, is the series of events that take place in a cell leading to its division and duplication . In cells without a nucleus , the cell cycle occurs via a process termed binary fission....
. Proteins are also necessary in animals' diets, since animals cannot synthesize all the amino acids they need and must obtain essential amino acid
Essential amino acid

File:BakedFish.jpgAn essential amino acid or indispensable amino acid is an amino acid that cannot be synthesized de novo synthesis by the organism , and therefore must be supplied in the diet....
s from food. Through the process of digestion
Digestion

Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breaking down of food into smaller components, to a form that can be Absorption, for instance, by a blood stream....
, animals break down ingested protein into free amino acids that are then used in metabolism.

The word protein comes from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 word p??te??? (proteios) "primary". Proteins were first described and named by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius
Jöns Jakob Berzelius

Friherre J?ns Jacob Berzelius was a Sweden chemist. He worked out the modern technique of chemical formula, and is together with John Dalton, Antoine Lavoisier, and Robert Boyle considered a father of modern chemistry....
 in 1838. However, the central role of proteins in living organisms was not fully appreciated until 1926, when James B. Sumner
James B. Sumner

James Batcheller Sumner was an American chemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1946 with John Howard Northrop and Wendell Meredith Stanley....
 showed that the enzyme urease
Urease

Urease is an enzyme that catalysis the hydrolysis of urea into carbon dioxide and ammonia. The reaction occurs as follows:In 1926 James Sumner showed that urease is a protein....
 was a protein. The first protein to be sequenced was insulin
Insulin

Insulin is a hormone with extensive effects on both metabolism and several other body systems . Insulin causes most of the body's cells to take up glucose from the blood , storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle, and stops use of fat as an energy source....
, by Frederick Sanger
Frederick Sanger

Frederick Sanger, Order of Merit , Order of the Companions of Honour, Order of the British Empire, Royal Society is an England biochemistry and twice a Nobel laureate in chemistry....
, who won the Nobel Prize for this achievement in 1958. The first protein structures to be solved were hemoglobin
Hemoglobin

Hemoglobin is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of vertebrates, and the tissues of some invertebrates....
 and myoglobin
Myoglobin

Myoglobin is a Tertiary structure globular protein of 153 amino acids, containing a heme prosthetic group in the center around which the remaining apoprotein folds....
, by Max Perutz
Max Perutz

Max Ferdinand Perutz, Order of Merit was an Austrian-United Kingdom molecular biologist, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962, shared with John Kendrew for their studies of the structures of hemoglobin and globular proteins....
 and Sir John Cowdery Kendrew
John Kendrew

Sir John Cowdery Kendrew, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Fellow of the Royal Society was an England biochemist and crystallography who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Max Perutz; their group in the Cavendish Laboratory investigated the structure of heme-containing proteins....
, respectively, in 1958. The three-dimensional structures of both proteins were first determined by x-ray diffraction analysis; Perutz and Kendrew shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Pri...
 for these discoveries.

Biochemistry

Peptide Group Resonance
Peptide Bond
Proteins are linear polymer
Polymer

A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. While polymer in popular usage suggests plastic, the term actually refers to a large class of natural and synthetic materials with a variety of properties....
s built from 20 different L-a-amino acid
Amino acid

In chemistry, an amino acid is a molecule containing both amine and carboxyl functional groups. These molecules are particularly important in biochemistry, where this term refers to alpha-amino acids with the general formula H2NCHRCOOH, where R is an organic substituent....
s. All amino acids possess common structural features, including an a carbon
Alpha carbon

The alpha carbon in organic chemistry refers to the first carbon that attaches to a functional group . By extension, the second carbon is the beta carbon, and so on....
 to which an amino group, a carboxyl group, and a variable side chain
Side chain

A side chain in organic chemistry and biochemistry is a part of a molecule that is attached to a core structure. The placeholder R is often used as a generic placeholder for side chains, the R historically being derived from radical or rest....
 are bonded
Chemical bond

A chemical bond is the physical process responsible for the attractive interactions between atoms and molecules, and that which confers stability to diatomic and polyatomic chemical compounds....
. Only proline
Proline

Proline is an a-amino acid, one of the twenty DNA-encoded amino acids. Its codons are CCU, CCC, CCA, and CCG. It is not an essential amino acid, which means that humans can synthesize it....
 differs from this basic structure as it contains an unusual ring to the N-end amine group, which forces the CO–NH amide moiety into a fixed conformation. The side chains of the standard amino acids, detailed in the list of standard amino acids, have different chemical properties that produce three-dimensional protein structure and different reactivities, are therefore critical to protein function.

The amino acids in a polypeptide chain are linked by peptide bond
Peptide bond

A peptide bond is a chemical bond formed between two molecules when the carboxyl group of one molecule reacts with the amine group of the other molecule, thereby releasing a molecule of water ....
s. Once linked in the protein chain, an individual amino acid is called a residue, and the linked series of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms are known as the main chain or protein backbone. The peptide bond has two resonance
Resonance (chemistry)

Resonance in chemistry is a key component of valence bond theory used to graphically represent and mathematically model certain types of molecular structures when no single, conventional Lewis structure can satisfactorily represent the observed structure or explain its properties....
 forms that contribute some double-bond character and inhibit rotation around its axis, so that the alpha carbons are roughly coplanar. The other two dihedral angle
Dihedral angle

In geometry, the angle between two Plane s is called their dihedral or torsion angle.The dihedral angle of two planes can be seen by looking at the planes "edge on", i.e., along their line of intersection....
s in the peptide bond determine the local shape assumed by the protein backbone.

Due to the chemical structure of the individual amino acids, the protein chain has directionality. The end of the protein with a free carboxyl group is known as the C-terminus or carboxy terminus, whereas the end with a free amino group is known as the N-terminus or amino terminus.

The words protein, polypeptide, and peptide
Peptide

Peptides are short polymers formed from the linking, in a defined order, of a-amino acids. The link between one amino acid residue and the next is known as an amide chemical bond or a peptide bond....
 are a little ambiguous and can overlap in meaning. Protein is generally used to refer to the complete biological molecule in a stable conformation
Tertiary structure

In biochemistry and chemistry, the tertiary structure of a protein or any other macromolecule is its three-dimensional structure, as defined by the atomic coordinates....
, whereas peptide is generally reserved for a short amino acid oligomers often lacking a stable three-dimensional structure. However, the boundary between the two is not well defined and usually lies near 20–30 residues. Polypeptide can refer to any single linear chain of amino acids, usually regardless of length, but often implies an absence of a defined conformation
Tertiary structure

In biochemistry and chemistry, the tertiary structure of a protein or any other macromolecule is its three-dimensional structure, as defined by the atomic coordinates....
.

Synthesis

Proteins are assembled from amino acids using information encoded in gene
Gene

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cell and pass genetic trait to offspring....
s. Each protein has its own unique amino acid sequence that is specified by the nucleotide
Nucleotide

Nucleotides are molecules that comprise the structural units of RNA and DNA. Additionally, nucleotides play central roles in metabolism. In that capacity, they serve as sources of chemical energy , participate in cell signaling , and are incorporated into important cofactors of enzymatic reactions ....
 sequence of the gene encoding this protein. The genetic code
Genetic code

The genetic code is the set of rules by which information encoded in genetic material is Translation into proteins by living cell s. The code defines a mapping between tri-nucleotide sequences, called codons, and amino acids....
 is a set of three-nucleotide sets called codons and each three-nucleotide combination stands for an amino acid, for example AUG stands for methionine
Methionine

Methionine is an a-amino acid with the chemical formula HO2CCHCH2CH2SCH3. This Essential amino acid is classified as nonpolar....
. Because DNA
DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetics instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses....
 contains four nucleotides, the total number of possible codons is 64; hence, there is some redundancy in the genetic code, with some amino acids specified by more than one codon. Genes encoded in DNA are first transcribed
Transcription (genetics)

Transcription is the synthesis of RNA under the direction of DNA. RNA synthesis, or transcription, is the process of transcribing DNA nucleotide sequence information into RNA sequence information....
 into pre-messenger RNA
Messenger RNA

Messenger ribonucleic acid is a molecule of RNA encoding a chemical "blueprint" for a protein product. mRNA is transcription from a DNA template, and carries coding information to the sites of protein synthesis: the ribosomes....
 (mRNA) by proteins such as RNA polymerase
RNA polymerase

RNA polymerase is an enzyme that produces RNA. In cell s, RNAP is needed for constructing RNA chains from DNA genes as templates, a process called Transcription ....
. Most organisms then process the pre-mRNA (also known as a primary transcript) using various forms of post-transcriptional modification
Post-transcriptional modification

Post-transcriptional modification is a process in cell biology by which, in eukaryotic cells, RNA is converted into RNA. A notable example is the conversion of precursor messenger RNA into mature messenger RNA messenger RNA , which includes splicing and occurs prior to protein synthesis....
 to form the mature mRNA, which is then used as a template for protein synthesis by the ribosome
Ribosome

Ribosomes are complexes of RNA and protein that are found in all cell s. Ribosomes from bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes, the three domains of life on Earth, have significantly different structure and RNA....
. In prokaryote
Prokaryote

The prokaryotes are a group of organisms that lack a cell nucleus , or any other cell membrane-bound organelles. They differ from the eukaryotes, which have a cell nucleus....
s the mRNA may either be used as soon as it is produced, or be bound by a ribosome after having moved away from the nucleoid
Nucleoid

In prokaryotes, the nucleoid is an irregularly-shaped region within the cell of prokaryotes where the genetic material is localized. The genome of prokaryotic organisms generally is a circular, double-stranded piece of DNA, of which multiple copies may exist at any time....
. In contrast, eukaryote
Eukaryote

Animals, plants, fungus, and protists are eukaryotes , organisms whose Cell are organized into complex structures enclosed within Cell membrane....
s make mRNA in the cell nucleus
Cell nucleus

In cell biology, the nucleus , also sometimes referred to as the "control center", is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in all eukaryote cell ....
 and then translocate it across the nuclear membrane into the cytoplasm
Cytoplasm

The cytoplasm is the part of a Cell that is enclosed within the plasma membrane. In eukaryote cells the cytoplasm contains organelles, such as mitochondrion, that are filled with liquid kept separate from the rest of the cytoplasm by biological membranes....
, where protein synthesis
Protein biosynthesis

Protein synthesis is the process in which cell build proteins. The term is sometimes used to refer only to protein translation but more often it refers to a multi-step process, beginning with amino acid synthesis and transcription which are then used for translation ....
 then takes place. The rate of protein synthesis is higher in prokaryotes than eukaryotes and can reach up to 20 amino acids per second.

The process of synthesizing a protein from an mRNA template is known as translation
Translation (genetics)

Translation is the first stage of protein biosynthesis . Translation is the production of proteins by decoding mRNA produced in Transcription ....
. The mRNA is loaded onto the ribosome and is read three nucleotides at a time by matching each codon to its base pair
Base pair

In molecular biology, two nucleotides on opposite complementarity DNA or RNA strands that are connected via hydrogen bonds are called a base pair ....
ing anticodon located on a transfer RNA
Transfer RNA

Transfer RNA is a small RNA that transfers a specific active amino acid to a growing polypeptide chain at the ribosomal site of protein synthesis during translation ....
 molecule, which carries the amino acid corresponding to the codon it recognizes. The enzyme aminoacyl tRNA synthetase
Aminoacyl tRNA synthetase

An aminoacyl tRNA synthetase is an enzyme that catalyzes the esterification of a specific amino acid or its precursor to one of all its compatible cognate tRNAs to form an aminoacyl-tRNA....
 "charges" the tRNA molecules with the correct amino acids. The growing polypeptide is often termed the nascent chain. Proteins are always biosynthesized from N-terminus to C-terminus.

The size of a synthesized protein can be measured by the number of amino acids it contains and by its total molecular mass
Molecular mass

The molecular mass of a chemical compound, frequently referred by the older term molecular weight and abbreviated as MW, is the mass of one molecule of that substance, relative to the unified atomic mass unit u ....
, which is normally reported in units of daltons (synonymous with atomic mass unit
Atomic mass unit

The unified atomic mass unit , or dalton or, sometimes, universal mass unit, is a Units of measurement of mass used to express atomic weight and molecular masses....
s), or the derivative unit kilodalton (kDa). Yeast
Yeast

Yeasts are eukaryote microorganisms classified in the Kingdom fungus, with about 1,500 species currently described; they dominate fungal diversity in the oceans....
 proteins are on average 466 amino acids long and 53 kDa in mass. The largest known proteins are the titin
Titin

Titin, also known as connectin, is a protein that is important in the contraction of striated muscle tissues....
s, a component of the muscle
MUSCLE

MUSCLE is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.MUSCLE is integrated into UGENE bioinformatics tool as a plugin....
 sarcomere
Sarcomere

"A-band" redirects here. For other uses of the term see A band.A sarcomere is the basic unit of a muscle's cross-striated myofibril. Sarcomeres are multi-protein complexes composed of three different filament systems....
, with a molecular mass of almost 3,000 kDa and a total length of almost 27,000 amino acids.

Chemical synthesis

Short proteins can also be synthesized chemically by a family of methods known as peptide synthesis
Peptide synthesis

In organic chemistry, peptide synthesis is the production of peptides, which are organic compounds in which multiple amino acids are linked via peptide bonds which are also known as amide bonds....
, which rely on organic synthesis
Organic synthesis

Organic synthesis is a special branch of chemical synthesis and is concerned with the construction of organic compounds via organic reactions. Organic_chemistry molecules can often contain a higher level of complexity compared to purely Inorganic_chemistry compounds, so the synthesis of organic compounds has developed into one of the most im...
 techniques such as chemical ligation
Chemical ligation

Chemical ligation is a set of techniques used for creating long peptide or protein chains. It is the second step of a convergent synthesis. First smaller peptides containing 30-50 amino acids are prepared by conventional chemical peptide synthesis....
 to produce peptides in high yield. Chemical synthesis allows for the introduction of non-natural amino acids into polypeptide chains, such as attachment of fluorescent probes to amino acid side chains. These methods are useful in laboratory biochemistry
Biochemistry

Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry processes in living organisms. It deals with the structure and function of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules....
 and cell biology
Cell biology

Cell biology is an list of academic disciplines that studies cell s ? their physiology properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their cell cycle, cell division and apoptosis....
, though generally not for commercial applications. Chemical synthesis is inefficient for polypeptides longer than about 300 amino acids, and the synthesized proteins may not readily assume their native tertiary structure
Tertiary structure

In biochemistry and chemistry, the tertiary structure of a protein or any other macromolecule is its three-dimensional structure, as defined by the atomic coordinates....
. Most chemical synthesis methods proceed from C-terminus to N-terminus, opposite the biological reaction.

Structure of proteins


Proteinviews 1tim
Most proteins fold
Protein folding

Protein folding is the physical process by which a polypeptide folds into its characteristic and functional protein structure.Each protein begins as a polypeptide, translated from a sequence of mRNA as a linear chain of amino acids....
 into unique 3-dimensional structures. The shape into which a protein naturally folds is known as its native state
Native state

In biochemistry, the native state of a protein is its operative or functional form. All protein molecules are simple unbranched chains of amino acids, but it is by assuming a specific three-dimensional shape that they are able to perform their biological function....
. Although many proteins can fold unassisted, simply through the chemical properties of their amino acids, others require the aid of molecular chaperones to fold into their native states. Biochemists often refer to four distinct aspects of a protein's structure:
  • Primary structure
    Primary structure

    In biochemistry, the primary structure of a biological molecule is the exact specification of its atomic composition and the chemical bonds connecting those atoms ....
    : the amino acid sequence
    Peptide sequence

    Peptide sequence or amino acid sequence is the order in which amino acid residues, connected by peptide bonds, lie in the chain in peptides and proteins....
  • Secondary structure
    Secondary structure

    In biochemistry and structural biology, secondary structure is the general three-dimensional form of local segments of biopolymers such as proteins and nucleic acids ....
    : regularly repeating local structures stabilized by hydrogen bond
    Hydrogen bond

    A hydrogen bond is the attractive force between one electronegative atom and a hydrogen covalently bonded to another electronegative atom. It results from a dipole-dipole force with a hydrogen atom bonded to nitrogen, oxygen or fluorine ....
    s. The most common examples are the alpha helix
    Alpha helix

    A common motif in the secondary structure of proteins, the alpha helix is a right- or left-handed coiled conformation, resembling a spring , in which every backbone amino group donates a hydrogen bond to the backbone carbonyl group of the amino acid four residues earlier ....
     and beta sheet
    Beta sheet

    The ? sheet is the second form of regular secondary structure in proteins consisting of beta strands connected laterally by three or more hydrogen bonds, forming a generally twisted, pleated sheet ....
    . Because secondary structures are local, many regions of different secondary structure can be present in the same protein molecule.
  • Tertiary structure
    Tertiary structure

    In biochemistry and chemistry, the tertiary structure of a protein or any other macromolecule is its three-dimensional structure, as defined by the atomic coordinates....
    : the overall shape of a single protein molecule; the spatial relationship of the secondary structures to one another. Tertiary structure is generally stabilized by nonlocal interactions, most commonly the formation of a hydrophobic core, but also through salt bridge
    Salt bridge (protein)

    In protein chemistry, the term salt bridge or salt bond denotes a relatively weak ionic bond between positively charged amino acids and negatively charged amino acids in a protein....
    s, hydrogen bonds, disulfide bond
    Disulfide bond

    In chemistry, a disulfide bond is a single covalent bond derived from the coupling of thiol groups. The linkage is also called an SS-bond or disulfide bridge....
    s, and even post-translational modifications. The term "tertiary structure" is often used as synonymous with the term fold. The Tertiary structure is what controls the basic function of the protein.
  • Quaternary structure
    Quaternary structure

    In biochemistry, quaternary structure is the arrangement of multiple protein folding protein molecules in a multi-subunit complex....
    : the shape or structure that results from the interaction
    Protein-protein interaction

    Protein-protein interactions involve the association of protein molecules. These associations are studied from the perspective of biochemistry, signal transduction and graph theory....
     of more than one protein molecule, usually called protein subunit
    Protein subunit

    In structural biology, a protein subunit or subunit protein is a single protein molecule that assembles with other protein molecules to form a protein complex: a multimeric or oligomeric protein....
    s
    in this context, which function as part of the larger assembly or protein complex
    Protein complex

    A multiprotein complex is a group of two or more proteins. Protein complexes are a form of quaternary structure. Proteins in a protein complex are linked by non-covalent protein-protein interactions, and different protein complexes have different degrees of stability over time....
    .


Proteins are not entirely rigid molecules. In addition to these levels of structure, proteins may shift between several related structures while they perform their functions. In the context of these functional rearrangements, these tertiary or quaternary structures are usually referred to as "conformations", and transitions between them are called conformational changes. Such changes are often induced by the binding of a substrate
Substrate (biochemistry)

In biochemistry, a substrate is a molecule upon which an enzyme acts. Enzymes catalysis chemical reactions involving the substrate. The substrate binds with the enzyme active site, and an enzyme-substrate complex is formed....
 molecule to an enzyme's active site
Active site

The active site of an enzyme contains the catalysis and binding sites. The structure and chemical properties of the active site allow the recognition and binding of the substrate ....
, or the physical region of the protein that participates in chemical catalysis. In solution all proteins also undergo variation in structure through thermal vibration and the collision with other molecules, see the animation on the right.

Protein Composite
Proteins can be informally divided into three main classes, which correlate with typical tertiary structures: globular protein
Globular protein

Globular proteins, or spheroproteins are one of the two main protein classes, comprising sphere-like proteins that are more or less soluble in aqueous solution ....
s, fibrous protein
Fibrous protein

Scleroproteins are one of the two main classes of protein tertiary structure .They are also called fibrous proteins....
s, and membrane protein
Membrane protein

A membrane protein is a protein molecule that is attached to, or associated with the membrane of a cell or an organelle. More than half of all proteins interact with membranes....
s. Almost all globular proteins are soluble and many are enzymes. Fibrous proteins are often structural; membrane proteins often serve as receptors
Receptor (biochemistry)

In biochemistry, a receptor is a protein molecule, embedded in either the plasma membrane or cytoplasm of a cell, to which a mobile signaling molecule may attach....
 or provide channels for polar or charged molecules to pass through the cell membrane.

A special case of intramolecular hydrogen bonds within proteins, poorly shielded from water attack and hence promoting their own dehydration
Dehydration

Dehydration is the removal of water from an object. In Physiology terms, it entails a relative deficiency of water molecules in relation to other dissolved solutes....
, are called dehydron
Dehydron

A dehydron is an intramolecular hydrogen bond incompletely shielded from water, with a propensity to promote its own dehydration. Dehydrons constitute a special kind of packing defect in soluble proteins and were named and characterized by Argentine-born American scientist , from , and his coworkers , and ....
s.

Structure determination

Discovering the tertiary structure of a protein, or the quaternary structure of its complexes, can provide important clues about how the protein performs its function. Common experimental methods of structure determination include X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography

X-ray crystallography is a method of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a crystal and scatters into many different directions....
 and NMR spectroscopy, both of which can produce information at atom
Atom

|-! bgcolor=gray | Properties|-||}The atom is a basic unit of matter consisting of a dense, central atomic nucleus surrounded by a electron cloud of electric charge electrons....
ic resolution. Cryoelectron microscopy is used to produce lower-resolution structural information about very large protein complexes, including assembled virus
Virus

A virus is a Optical microscope#Limitations of light microscopes infectious agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside a host cell . Viruses infect all cellular life....
es; a variant known as electron crystallography
Electron crystallography

Electron crystallography is a method to determine the arrangement of atoms in solids using an electron microscope. It can complement X-ray crystallography for studies of very small crystals , both inorganic, organic and proteins, such as membrane proteins, that cannot easily form the large 3-dimensional crystals required for that process....
 can also produce high-resolution information in some cases, especially for two-dimensional crystals of membrane proteins. Solved structures are usually deposited in the Protein Data Bank
Protein Data Bank

The Protein Data Bank is a repository for the 3-D structural data of large biological molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids. . The data, typically obtained by X-ray crystallography or Protein NMR and submitted by biologists and biochemistry from around the world, are released into the public domain, and can be accessed at no charge...
 (PDB), a freely available resource from which structural data about thousands of proteins can be obtained in the form of Cartesian coordinates for each atom in the protein.

Many more gene sequences are known than protein structures. Further, the set of solved structures is biased toward proteins that can be easily subjected to the conditions required in X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography

X-ray crystallography is a method of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a crystal and scatters into many different directions....
, one of the major structure determination methods. In particular, globular proteins are comparatively easy to crystallize in preparation for X-ray crystallography. Membrane proteins, by contrast, are difficult to crystallize and are underrepresented in the PDB. Structural genomics
Structural genomics

Structural genomics consists of the determination of the one, two and three dimensional structure of all proteins of a given organism, by experimental methods such as X-ray crystallography, protein NMR or computational approaches such as homology modelling....
 initiatives have attempted to remedy these deficiencies by systematically solving representative structures of major fold classes. Protein structure prediction
Protein structure prediction

Protein structure prediction is one of the most important goals pursued by bioinformatics and theoretical chemistry. Its aim is the prediction of the three-dimensional structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences, sometimes including additional relevant information such as the structures of related proteins....
 methods attempt to provide a means of generating a plausible structure for proteins whose structures have not been experimentally determined.

Cellular functions


Proteins are the chief actors within the cell, said to be carrying out the duties specified by the information encoded in genes. With the exception of certain types of RNA
RNA

Ribonucleic acid is a type of molecule that consists of a long chain of nucleotide units. Each nucleotide consists of a nucleobase, a ribose sugar, and a phosphate....
, most other biological molecules are relatively inert elements upon which proteins act. Proteins make up half the dry weight of an Escherichia coli
Escherichia coli

'Escherichia coli' , is a Gram negative bacterium that is commonly found in the lower gastrointestinal tract of warm-blooded animals. Most E....
 cell, whereas other macromolecules such as DNA and RNA make up only 3% and 20%, respectively. The set of proteins expressed in a particular cell or cell type is known as its proteome
Proteome

The proteome is the entire complement of proteins expressed by a genome, cell, tissue or organism. More specifically, it is the set expressed proteins at a given time under defined conditions....
.

Hexokinase Ball and Stick Model, With Substrates To Scale Copy
The chief characteristic of proteins that allows their diverse set of functions is their ability to bind other molecules specifically and tightly. The region of the protein responsible for binding another molecule is known as the binding site
Binding site

In biochemistry, a binding site is a region on a protein, DNA, or RNA to which specific other molecules and ions — in this context collectively called Ligand , or more specifically, protein ligands — form a chemical bond....
 and is often a depression or "pocket" on the molecular surface. This binding ability is mediated by the tertiary structure of the protein, which defines the binding site pocket, and by the chemical properties of the surrounding amino acids' side chains. Protein binding can be extraordinarily tight and specific; for example, the ribonuclease inhibitor
Ribonuclease inhibitor

Ribonuclease inhibitor is a large , acidic , leucine-rich repeat protein that forms extremely tight complexes with certain ribonucleases. It is a major cellular protein, comprising ~0.1% of all cellular protein by weight, and appears to play an important role in regulating the lifetime of RNA....
 protein binds to human angiogenin
Angiogenin

Angiogenin is a small polypeptide that is implicated in angiogenesis in tumor growth . However, angiogenin is unique among the many proteins that are involved in angiogenesis in that it is also an enzyme with an amino acid sequence 33% identical to that of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A)....
 with a sub-femtomolar dissociation constant
Dissociation constant

In chemistry and biochemistry, a dissociation constant is a specific type of equilibrium constant that measures the propensity of a larger object to separate reversibly into smaller components, as...
 (<10-15 M) but does not bind at all to its amphibian homolog onconase (>1 M). Extremely minor chemical changes such as the addition of a single methyl group to a binding partner can sometimes suffice to nearly eliminate binding; for example, the aminoacyl tRNA synthetase
Aminoacyl tRNA synthetase

An aminoacyl tRNA synthetase is an enzyme that catalyzes the esterification of a specific amino acid or its precursor to one of all its compatible cognate tRNAs to form an aminoacyl-tRNA....
 specific to the amino acid valine
Valine

Valine is an a-amino acid with the chemical formula HO2CCHCH2. L-Valine is one of 20 proteogenic amino acids....
 discriminates against the very similar side chain of the amino acid isoleucine
Isoleucine

Isoleucine is an a-amino acid with the chemical formula HO2CCHCHCH2CH3. It is an essential amino acid, which means that humans cannot synthesize it, so it must be part of our diet....
.

Proteins can bind to other proteins as well as to small-molecule substrates. When proteins bind specifically to other copies of the same molecule, they can oligomer
Oligomer

In chemistry, an oligomer consists of a limited number of monomer units , in contrast to a polymer which, at least in principle, consists of an unbounded number of monomers....
ize to form fibrils; this process occurs often in structural proteins that consist of globular monomers that self-associate to form rigid fibers. Protein-protein interaction
Protein-protein interaction

Protein-protein interactions involve the association of protein molecules. These associations are studied from the perspective of biochemistry, signal transduction and graph theory....
s also regulate enzymatic activity, control progression through the cell cycle
Cell cycle

The cell cycle, or cell-division cycle, is the series of events that take place in a cell leading to its division and duplication . In cells without a nucleus , the cell cycle occurs via a process termed binary fission....
, and allow the assembly of large protein complex
Protein complex

A multiprotein complex is a group of two or more proteins. Protein complexes are a form of quaternary structure. Proteins in a protein complex are linked by non-covalent protein-protein interactions, and different protein complexes have different degrees of stability over time....
es that carry out many closely related reactions with a common biological function. Proteins can also bind to, or even be integrated into, cell membranes. The ability of binding partners to induce conformational changes in proteins allows the construction of enormously complex signaling
Cell signaling

Cell signaling is part of a complex system of communication that governs basic cellular activities and coordinates cell actions. The ability of cells to perceive and correctly respond to their microenvironment is the basis of development, tissue repair, and immunity as well as normal tissue homeostasis....
 networks.

Enzymes

The best-known role of proteins in the cell is as enzyme
Enzyme

Enzymes are biomolecules that catalysis chemical reactions. Almost all enzymes are proteins. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called Substrate , and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, the products....
s, which catalyze
Catalysis

Catalysis is the process in which the reaction rate of a chemical reaction is either increased or decreased by means of a chemical substance known as a catalyst....
 chemical reactions. Enzymes are usually highly specific and accelerate only one or a few chemical reactions. Enzymes carry out most of the reactions involved in metabolism
Metabolism

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms in order to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments....
, as well as manipulating DNA in processes such as DNA replication
DNA replication

DNA replication, the basis for heredity, is a fundamental process occurring in all living organisms to copy their DNA. This process is "semiconservative replication" in that each strand of the original double-stranded DNA molecule serves as template for the reproduction of the complementary strand....
, DNA repair
DNA repair

DNA repair refers to a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolism activities and environmental factors such as UV light and Radiation can cause DNA damage, resulting in as many as 1 million individual molecular lesions per cell pe...
, and transcription
Transcription (genetics)

Transcription is the synthesis of RNA under the direction of DNA. RNA synthesis, or transcription, is the process of transcribing DNA nucleotide sequence information into RNA sequence information....
. Some enzymes act on other proteins to add or remove chemical groups in a process known as post-translational modification. About 4,000 reactions are known to be catalyzed by enzymes. The rate acceleration conferred by enzymatic catalysis is often enormous - as much as 1017-fold increase in rate over the uncatalyzed reaction in the case of orotate decarboxylase (78 million years without the enzyme, 18 milliseconds with the enzyme).

The molecules bound and acted upon by enzymes are called substrate
Substrate (biochemistry)

In biochemistry, a substrate is a molecule upon which an enzyme acts. Enzymes catalysis chemical reactions involving the substrate. The substrate binds with the enzyme active site, and an enzyme-substrate complex is formed....
s. Although enzymes can consist of hundreds of amino acids, it is usually only a small fraction of the residues that come in contact with the substrate, and an even smaller fraction - 3-4 residues on average - that are directly involved in catalysis. The region of the enzyme that binds the substrate and contains the catalytic residues is known as the active site
Active site

The active site of an enzyme contains the catalysis and binding sites. The structure and chemical properties of the active site allow the recognition and binding of the substrate ....
.

Cell signaling and ligand binding

Mouse Cholera Antibody 1f4x
Many proteins are involved in the process of cell signaling
Cell signaling

Cell signaling is part of a complex system of communication that governs basic cellular activities and coordinates cell actions. The ability of cells to perceive and correctly respond to their microenvironment is the basis of development, tissue repair, and immunity as well as normal tissue homeostasis....
 and signal transduction
Signal transduction

In biology, 'signal transduction' refers to any process by which a cell converts one kind of signal or stimulus into another. Most processes of signal transduction involve ordered sequences of biochemistry chemical reaction inside the cell, which are carried out by enzymes, activated by Second messenger systems, resulting in a signal tran...
. Some proteins, such as insulin
Insulin

Insulin is a hormone with extensive effects on both metabolism and several other body systems . Insulin causes most of the body's cells to take up glucose from the blood , storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle, and stops use of fat as an energy source....
, are extracellular proteins that transmit a signal from the cell in which they were synthesized to other cells in distant tissues
Biological tissue

Tissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. Hence, a tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function....
. Others are membrane protein
Membrane protein

A membrane protein is a protein molecule that is attached to, or associated with the membrane of a cell or an organelle. More than half of all proteins interact with membranes....
s that act as receptors
Receptor (biochemistry)

In biochemistry, a receptor is a protein molecule, embedded in either the plasma membrane or cytoplasm of a cell, to which a mobile signaling molecule may attach....
 whose main function is to bind a signaling molecule and induce a biochemical response in the cell. Many receptors have a binding site exposed on the cell surface and an effector domain within the cell, which may have enzymatic activity or may undergo a conformational change
Conformational change

A macromolecule is usually flexible and dynamic. It can change its shape in response to changes in its environment or other factors; each possible shape is called a conformation, and a transition between them is called a conformational change....
 detected by other proteins within the cell.

Antibodies are protein components of adaptive immune system
Adaptive immune system

The adaptive immune system is composed of highly specialized, systemic cells and processes that eliminate or prevent pathogenic challenges. Thought to have arisen in the first Gnathostomata, the adaptive or "specific" immune system is activated by the ?non-specific? and evolutionarily older innate immune system ....
 whose main function is to bind antigen
Antigen

An antigen is a substance that prompts the generation of antibodies and can cause an immune response. The word originated from the notion that they can stimulate antibody generation....
s, or foreign substances in the body, and target them for destruction. Antibodies can be secreted into the extracellular environment or anchored in the membranes of specialized B cell
B cell

B cells are lymphocytes that play a large role in the humoral immunity . The principal functions of B cells are to make antibody against antigens, perform the role of Antigen Presenting Cells and eventually develop into memory B cells after activation by antigen interaction....
s known as plasma cell
Plasma cell

Plasma cells, also called plasma B cells or plasmocytes, are White blood cells of the immune system transported by the blood plasma and the lymphatic system....
s. Whereas enzymes are limited in their binding affinity for their substrates by the necessity of conducting their reaction, antibodies have no such constraints. An antibody's binding affinity to its target is extraordinarily high.

Many ligand transport proteins bind particular small biomolecules and transport them to other locations in the body of a multicellular organism. These proteins must have a high binding affinity when their ligand
Ligand

In chemistry, a ligand is either an atom, ion, or molecule that bonds to a central metal, generally involving formal donation of one or more of its electrons....
 is present in high concentrations, but must also release the ligand when it is present at low concentrations in the target tissues. The canonical example of a ligand-binding protein is haemoglobin, which transports oxygen
Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
 from the lung
Lung

The lung is the essential respiration organ in air-breathing animals, including most tetrapods, a few fish and a few snails. In mammals and the more complex life forms, the two lungs are located in the chest on either side of the heart....
s to other organs and tissues in all vertebrate
Vertebrate

Vertebrates are members of the subphylum Vertebrata, chordates with Vertebras or Vertebral columns. The grouping sometimes includes the hagfish, which have no vertebrae, but are genetically quite closely related to lampreys, which do have vertebrae....
s and has close homolog
Homology (biology)

In evolutionary biology, homology refers to any similarity between characteristics that is due to their common descent. The word homologous derives from the ancient Greek ??????e??, 'to agree'....
s in every biological kingdom
Kingdom (biology)

In Biology taxonomy, kingdom or regnum is a taxonomic rank in either the highest rank, or the Rank below domain . Each kingdom is divided into smaller groups called Phylum ....
. Lectins are sugar-binding proteins which are highly specific for their sugar moieties. Lectins typically play a role in biological recognition
Recognition

=Recognition=Recognition is one of the three basic memory tasks. It involves identifying objects or events that have been encountered before. It is the easiest of the memory tasks....
 phenomena involving cells and proteins. Receptor
Receptor

Receptor may refer to:*Sensory receptor, in physiology, any structure which, on receiving environmental stimuli, produces an informative nerve impulse...
s and hormone
Hormone

Hormones are chemicals released by cells that affect cells in other parts of the body. Only a small amount of hormone is required to alter cell metabolism....
s are highly specific binding proteins.

Transmembrane protein
Transmembrane protein

A transmembrane protein is a protein that spans the entire biological membrane. Transmembrane proteins aggregate and precipitate in water. They require detergents or nonpolar solvents for extraction, although some of them can be also extracted using denaturing agents....
s can also serve as ligand transport proteins that alter the permeability
Semipermeable membrane

A semipermeable membrane, also termed a selectively-permeable membrane, a partially-permeable membrane or a differentially-permeable membrane, is a membrane that will allow certain molecules or ions to pass through it by diffusion and occasionally specialized "facilitated diffusion." The rate of passage depends on the press...
 of the cell membrane to small molecules and ions. The membrane alone has a hydrophobic core through which polar
Chemical polarity

In chemistry, polarity refers to the dipole-dipole intermolecular forces between the slightly electric charge end of one molecule to the negative end of another or the same molecule....
 or charged molecules cannot diffuse
Diffusion

Molecular diffusion, often called simply diffusion, is a net transport of molecules from a region of higher concentration to one of lower concentration by random molecular motion....
. Membrane proteins contain internal channels that allow such molecules to enter and exit the cell. Many ion channel
Ion channel

Ion channels are pore-forming proteins that help establish and control the small voltage gradient across the plasma membrane of all living cell s by allowing the flow of ions down their electrochemical gradient....
 proteins are specialized to select for only a particular ion; for example, potassium
Potassium

Potassium is a chemical element. It has the symbol K , atomic number 19, and atomic mass 39.0983. Potassium was first isolated from potash, hence the name....
 and sodium
Sodium

Sodium is an element which has the symbol Na , atomic number 11, atomic mass 23 amu , and a common oxidation number +1. Sodium is a soft, silvery white, highly reactive element and is a member of the alkali metals within "group 1" ....
 channels often discriminate for only one of the two ions.

Structural proteins

Structural proteins confer stiffness and rigidity to otherwise-fluid biological components. Most structural proteins are fibrous protein
Fibrous protein

Scleroproteins are one of the two main classes of protein tertiary structure .They are also called fibrous proteins....
s; for example, actin
Actin

Actin is a Globular_protein, roughly 42-kDa protein found in all Eukaryote where it may be present at concentrations of over 100 ?M. It is also one of the most highly-Conservation proteins, differing by no more than 20% in species as diverse as algae and humans....
 and tubulin
Tubulin

Tubulin is one of several members of a small family of globular proteins. The most common members of the tubulin family are a-tubulin and ?-tubulin, the proteins that make up microtubules....
 are globular and soluble as monomers, but polymer
Polymer

A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. While polymer in popular usage suggests plastic, the term actually refers to a large class of natural and synthetic materials with a variety of properties....
ize to form long, stiff fibers that comprise the cytoskeleton
Cytoskeleton

The cytoskeleton is a cellular "scaffolding" or "skeleton" contained within the cytoplasm. The cytoskeleton is present in all cells; it was once thought this structure was unique to eukaryotes, but recent research has identified the prokaryotic cytoskeleton....
, which allows the cell to maintain its shape and size. Collagen
Collagen

Collagen is the main protein of connective tissue in animals and the most abundant protein in mammals, making up about 25% to 35% of the whole-body protein content....
 and elastin
Elastin

Elastin is a protein in connective tissue that is Elasticity and allows many tissues in the body to resume their shape after stretching or contracting....
 are critical components of connective tissue
Connective tissue

Connective tissue is a form of fibrous biological tissue.It is one of the four types of tissue in traditional classifications .Collagen is the main protein of connective tissue in animals and the most abundant protein in mammals, making up about 25% of the total protein content....
 such as cartilage
Cartilage

Cartilage is a type of dense connective tissue. It is composed of specialized cells called chondrocyte that produce a large amount of extracellular matrix composed of collagen fibers, abundant ground substance rich in proteoglycan, and elastin fibers....
, and keratin
Keratin

Keratins are a family of fibrous protein; tough and insoluble, they form the hard but mineral structures found in reptiles, birds, amphibians and mammals....
 is found in hard or filamentous structures such as hair
Hair

Hair is a protein filament that epidermal growth from hair follicle deep within the dermis. The fine, soft hair found on many nonhuman mammals is typically called fur; wool is the characteristically curly hair found on sheep and goats....
, nails
Nail (anatomy)

A nail is a horn -like structure at the end of an animal's finger or toe. See also claw....
, feather
Feather

Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates....
s, hooves
Hoof

File:Horse rear hooves.jpgA hoof is the tip of a toe of an ungulate mammal, strengthened by a thick horny covering. The hoof consists of a hard or rubbery sole, and a hard wall formed by a thick Nail rolled around the tip of the toe....
, and some animal shells.

Other proteins that serve structural functions are motor proteins such as myosin
Myosin

Myosins are a large family of motor proteins found in eukaryotic Biological tissue. They are responsible for actin-based motility.Following the discovery, by Pollard and Korn, of enzymes with myosin-like function in Acanthamoeba, a large number of divergent myosin genes have been discovered throughout eukaryotes....
, kinesin
Kinesin

Kinesins are a class of motor proteins found in eukaryotic cells. Kinesins move along microtubule cables powered by the dephosphorylation of Adenosine triphosphate ....
, and dynein
Dynein

Dynein is a motor protein in biological cells which converts the chemical energy contained in Adenosine triphosphate into the mechanical energy of movement....
, which are capable of generating mechanical forces. These proteins are crucial for cellular motility
Motility

Motility is a biology term which refers to the ability to move spontaneously and actively, consuming energy in the process. It can apply to either single-celled or multicellular organisms....
 of single celled organisms and the sperm
Spermatozoon

A sperm, from the ancient Greek word sp???a and and more commonly known as a sperm cell, is the ploidy cell that is the male gamete. It Fertilization an ovum to form a zygote....
 of many sexually reproducing multicellular organisms. They also generate the forces exerted by contracting muscle
MUSCLE

MUSCLE is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.MUSCLE is integrated into UGENE bioinformatics tool as a plugin....
s.

Methods of study


As some of the most commonly studied biological molecules, the activities and structures of proteins are examined both in vitro
In vitro

In vitro refers to the technique of performing a given procedure in a controlled environment outside of a living organism. Some may argue that in vitro refers to a process that is created in a "test tube"; however, Robert Kail and John Cavanaugh on page 58 in the 4th edition of Human Development: A Life-Span View cite that in fact th...
 and in vivo
In vivo

In vivo means that which takes place inside an organism. In science, in vivo refers to experimentation done in or on the living tissue of a whole, living organism as opposed to a partial or dead one or a in vitro....
. In vitro studies of purified proteins in controlled environments are useful for learning how a protein carries out its function: for example, enzyme kinetics
Enzyme kinetics

Enzyme kinetics is the study of the chemical reactions that are catalyst by enzymes, with a focus on their reaction rates. The study of an enzyme's chemical kinetics reveals the catalytic mechanism of this enzyme, its role in metabolism, how its activity is controlled, and how a drug or a poison might enzyme inhibitor the enzyme....
 studies explore the chemical mechanism
Reaction mechanism

In chemistry, a reaction mechanism is the step by step sequence of elementary reactions by which overall chemical change occurs .Although only the net chemical change is directly observation for most chemical reactions, experiments can often be designed that suggest the possible sequence of steps in a reaction mechanism....
 of an enzyme's catalytic activity and its relative affinity for various possible substrate molecules. By contrast, in vivo experiments on proteins' activities within cells or even within whole organisms can provide complementary information about where a protein functions and how it is regulated.

Protein purification

In order to perform in vitro
In vitro

In vitro refers to the technique of performing a given procedure in a controlled environment outside of a living organism. Some may argue that in vitro refers to a process that is created in a "test tube"; however, Robert Kail and John Cavanaugh on page 58 in the 4th edition of Human Development: A Life-Span View cite that in fact th...
 analysis, a protein must be purified away from other cellular components. This process usually begins with cell lysis
Cytolysis

Cytolysis, or osmotic lysis, occurs when a cell bursts due to an osmosis that has caused excess water to move into the cell. It occurs in a Tonicity#Hypotonicity environment, where water Diffusions into the cell and causes its volume to increase....
, in which a cell's membrane is disrupted and its internal contents released into a solution known as a crude lysate
Crude lysate

A crude lysate is the solution produced when cell are destroyed by disrupting their cell membranes, often with detergent or other chaotropic agent, in a process known as cytolysis....
. The resulting mixture can be purified using ultracentrifugation, which fractionates the various cellular components into fractions containing soluble proteins; membrane lipid
Lipid

Lipids are broadly defined as any fat-soluble , naturally-occurring molecule, such as fats, oils, waxes, cholesterol, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins , monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others....
s and proteins; cellular organelle
Organelle

In cell biology, an organelle is a specialized subunit within a cell that has a specific function, and is usually separately enclosed within its own lipid membrane....
s, and nucleic acid
Nucleic acid

A nucleic acid is a macromolecule composed of chains of monomeric nucleotides. In biochemistry these molecules carry genetic information or form structures within Cell ....
s. Precipitation
Precipitation (chemistry)

Precipitation is the formation of a solid in a solution during a chemical reaction. When the reaction occurs, the solid formed is called the precipitate, and the liquid remaining above the solid is called the supernate....
 by a method known as salting out
Salting out

Salting out is a method of separating proteins based on the principle that proteins are less soluble at high salt concentrations. The salt concentration needed for the protein to precipitate out of the solution differs from protein to protein....
 can concentrate the proteins from this lysate. Various types of chromatography
Chromatography

Chromatography is the collective term for a family of laboratory techniques for the separation of mixtures. It involves passing a mixture dissolved in a "mobile phase" through a stationary phase, which separates the analyte to be measured from other molecules in the mixture and allows it to be isolated....
 are then used to isolate the protein or proteins of interest based on properties such as molecular weight, net charge and binding affinity. The level of purification can be monitored using various types of gel electrophoresis
Gel electrophoresis

Gel electrophoresis is a technique used for the separation of DNA , RNA , or protein molecules using an electric current applied to a gel matrix....
 if the desired protein's molecular weight and isoelectric point
Isoelectric point

The isoelectric point , sometimes abbreviated to IEP, is the pH at which a particular molecule or surface carries no net electric charge....
 are known, by spectroscopy
Spectroscopy

Spectroscopy was originally the study of the interaction between radiation and matter as a function of wavelength . In fact, historically, spectroscopy referred to the use of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, e.g....
 if the protein has distinguishable spectroscopic features, or by enzyme assay
Enzyme assay

Enzyme assays are laboratory methods for measuring enzyme activity. They are vital for the study of enzyme kinetics and enzyme inhibitor....
s if the protein has enzymatic activity. Additionally, proteins can be isolated according their charge using electrofocusing.

For natural proteins, a series of purification steps may be necessary to obtain protein sufficiently pure for laboratory applications. To simplify this process, genetic engineering
Genetic engineering

Engineering There are a number of ways through which genetic engineering is accomplished. Essentially, the process has five main steps# Isolation of the genes of interest...
 is often used to add chemical features to proteins that make them easier to purify without affecting their structure or activity. Here, a "tag" consisting of a specific amino acid sequence, often a series of histidine
Histidine

Histidine is one of the 20 standard amino acids present in proteins. In the nutritional sense, in humans, histidine is considered an essential amino acid, but only in children....
 residues (a "His-tag"), is attached to one terminus of the protein. As a result, when the lysate is passed over a chromatography column containing nickel
Nickel

Nickel is a chemical element, with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge....
, the histidine residues ligate the nickel and attach to the column while the untagged components of the lysate pass unimpeded.

Cellular localization

Localisations02eng
The study of proteins in vivo is often concerned with the synthesis and localization of the protein within the cell. Although many intracellular proteins are synthesized in the cytoplasm
Cytoplasm

The cytoplasm is the part of a Cell that is enclosed within the plasma membrane. In eukaryote cells the cytoplasm contains organelles, such as mitochondrion, that are filled with liquid kept separate from the rest of the cytoplasm by biological membranes....
 and membrane-bound or secreted proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum
Endoplasmic reticulum

The endoplasmic reticulum is a eukaryote organelle that forms an interconnected network of tubules, vesicle , and cisternae within cell . The lacey membranes of the endoplasmic reticulum were first seen by Keith R....
, the specifics of how proteins are targeted
Protein targeting

Protein targeting or protein sorting is the mechanism by which a cell transports proteins to the appropriate positions in the cell or outside of it....
 to specific organelles or cellular structures is often unclear. A useful technique for assessing cellular localization uses genetic engineering to express in a cell a fusion protein
Fusion protein

Fusion proteins, AKA chimeric proteins, are proteins created through the joining of two or more genes which originally coded for separate proteins....
 or chimera consisting of the natural protein of interest linked to a "reporter
Reporter gene

In molecular biology, a reporter gene is a gene that researchers attach to another gene of interest in cell culture, animals or plants. Certain genes are chosen as reporters because the characteristics they confer on organisms expressing them are easily identified and measured, or because they are selectable markers....
" such as green fluorescent protein
Green fluorescent protein

The green fluorescent protein is composed of 238 amino acids , originally isolated from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria that fluorescence green when exposed to blue light....
 (GFP). The fused protein's position within the cell can be cleanly and efficiently visualized using microscopy
Microscopy

Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view samples or objects. There are three well-known branches of microscopy, optical microscopy, electron microscopy and scanning probe microscopy....
, as shown in the figure opposite. In these cases, additional fluorescent chimeric proteins are generally required to prove the inferred localization.

Other methods for elucidating the cellular location of proteins requires the use of known compartmental markers for regions such as the ER, the Golgi, lysosomes/vacuoles, mitochondria, chloroplasts, plasma membrane, etc. With the use of fluorescently-tagged versions of these markers or of antibodies to known markers, it becomes much simpler to identify the localization of a protein of interest. For example, indirect immunofluorescence will allow for fluorescence colocalization and demonstration of location. Fluorescent dyes are used to label cellular compartments for a similar purpose.

Other possibilities exist, as well. For example, immunohistochemistry
Immunohistochemistry

Immunohistochemistry or IHC refers to the process of localizing proteins in cells of a tissue section exploiting the principle of antibody binding specifically to antigens in biological tissues....
 usually utilizes an antibody to one or more proteins of interest that are conjugated to enzymes yielding either luminescent or chromogenic signals that can be compared between samples, allowing for localization information.

Another applicable technique is cofractionation in sucrose (or other material) gradients using isopycnic centrifugation
Isopycnic centrifugation

Isopycnic centrifugation or equilibrium centrifugation is a process used to isolate nucleic acids such as DNA. To begin the analysis a mixture of caesium chloride and DNA is placed in a centrifuge for several hours at high speed to generate a force of about 10^5 x g-force ....
. While this technique does not prove colocalization of a compartment of known density and the protein of interest, it does increase the likelihood, and is more amenable to large-scale studies.

Finally, the gold-standard method of cellular localization is immunoelectron microscopy. This technique also uses an antibody to the protein of interest, along with classical electron microscopy techniques. The sample is prepared for normal electron microscopic examination, and then treated with an antibody to the protein of interest that is conjugated to an extremely electro-dense material, usually gold. This allows for the localization of both ultrastructural details as well as the protein of interest.

Through another genetic engineering application known as site-directed mutagenesis
Site-directed mutagenesis

Site-directed mutagenesis is a molecular biology technique in which a mutation is created at a defined site in a DNA molecule, usually a circular molecule known as a plasmid....
, researchers can alter the protein sequence and hence its structure, cellular localization, and susceptibility to regulation, which can be followed in vivo by GFP tagging or in vitro by enzyme kinetics
Enzyme kinetics

Enzyme kinetics is the study of the chemical reactions that are catalyst by enzymes, with a focus on their reaction rates. The study of an enzyme's chemical kinetics reveals the catalytic mechanism of this enzyme, its role in metabolism, how its activity is controlled, and how a drug or a poison might enzyme inhibitor the enzyme....
 and binding studies.

Proteomics and bioinformatics

The total complement of proteins present at a time in a cell or cell type is known as its proteome
Proteome

The proteome is the entire complement of proteins expressed by a genome, cell, tissue or organism. More specifically, it is the set expressed proteins at a given time under defined conditions....
, and the study of such large-scale data sets defines the field of proteomics
Proteomics

Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins, particularly their protein structure and functional genomics. Proteins are vital parts of living organisms, as they are the main components of the physiological metabolic pathways of biological cell....
, named by analogy to the related field of genomics
Genomics

Genomics is the study of the genomes of organisms. The field includes intensive efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts....
. Key experimental techniques in proteomics include 2D electrophoresis
Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis

Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, abbreviated as 2-DE or 2-D electrophoresis, is a form of gel electrophoresis commonly used to analyze proteins....
, which allows the separation of a large number of proteins, mass spectrometry
Mass spectrometry

Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique for the determination of the elemental composition of a sample or molecule. It is also used for elucidating the chemical structures of molecules, such as peptides and other chemical compounds....
, which allows rapid high-throughput identification of proteins and sequencing of peptides (most often after in-gel digestion
In-gel digestion

The in-gel digestion is part of the sample preparation for the mass spectrometry identification of proteins in course of Proteomics. The method was introduced 1992 by Rosenfeld....
), protein microarray
Protein microarray

A protein microarray, sometimes referred to as a protein binding microarray,provides a multiplex approach to identify protein-protein interactions, to identify the substrates of protein kinases, or to identify the targets of biologically active small molecules....
s, which allow the detection of the relative levels of a large number of proteins present in a cell, and two-hybrid screening
Two-hybrid screening

Two-hybrid screening is a molecular biology technique used to discover protein-protein interactions and protein-DNA interactions by testing for physical interactions between two proteins or a single protein and a DNA molecule, respectively....
, which allows the systematic exploration of protein-protein interaction
Protein-protein interaction

Protein-protein interactions involve the association of protein molecules. These associations are studied from the perspective of biochemistry, signal transduction and graph theory....
s. The total complement of biologically possible such interactions is known as the interactome
Interactome

Interactome is defined as the whole set of molecular interactions in cells. It is usually displayed as a directed graph. Molecular interactions can occur between molecules belonging to different biochemical families and also within a given family....
. A systematic attempt to determine the structures of proteins representing every possible fold is known as structural genomics
Structural genomics

Structural genomics consists of the determination of the one, two and three dimensional structure of all proteins of a given organism, by experimental methods such as X-ray crystallography, protein NMR or computational approaches such as homology modelling....
.

The large amount of genomic and proteomic data available for a variety of organisms, including the human genome
Human genome

The human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs. Twenty-two of these are autosome, while the remaining pair is XY sex-determination system....
, allows researchers to efficiently identify homologous
Homology (biology)

In evolutionary biology, homology refers to any similarity between characteristics that is due to their common descent. The word homologous derives from the ancient Greek ??????e??, 'to agree'....
 proteins in distantly related organisms by sequence alignment
Sequence alignment

In bioinformatics, a sequence alignment is a way of arranging the sequences of DNA, RNA, or protein to identify regions of similarity that may be a consequence of functional, structural biology, or evolutionary relationships between the sequences....
. Sequence profiling tool
Sequence profiling tool

A sequence profiling tool in bioinformatics is a type of software that presents information related to a gene sequence, gene name, or keyword input....
s can perform more specific sequence manipulations such as restriction enzyme
Restriction enzyme

A restriction enzyme is an enzyme that cuts double-stranded or single stranded DNA at specific recognition nucleotide sequences known as restriction sites....
 maps, open reading frame
Open reading frame

An open reading frame is a portion of an organism's genome which contains a sequence of base pair that could potentially translation a protein....
 analyses for nucleotide
Nucleotide

Nucleotides are molecules that comprise the structural units of RNA and DNA. Additionally, nucleotides play central roles in metabolism. In that capacity, they serve as sources of chemical energy , participate in cell signaling , and are incorporated into important cofactors of enzymatic reactions ....
 sequences, and secondary structure
Secondary structure

In biochemistry and structural biology, secondary structure is the general three-dimensional form of local segments of biopolymers such as proteins and nucleic acids ....
 prediction. From this data phylogenetic tree
Phylogenetic tree

A phylogenetic tree or evolutionary tree is a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological species or other entities that are believed to have a common descent....
s can be constructed and evolution
Evolution

In biology, evolution is change in the heritability trait of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. These changes are caused by a combination of three main processes: variation, reproduction, and selection....
ary hypotheses developed using special software like ClustalW regarding the ancestry of modern organisms and the genes they express. The field of bioinformatics
Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is the application of information technology to the field of molecular biology. The term bioinformatics was coined by Paulien Hogeweg in 1978 for the study of informatic processes in biotic systems....
 seeks to assemble, annotate, and analyze genomic and proteomic data, applying computational
Computer science

Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems....
 techniques to biological problems such as gene finding and cladistics
Cladistics

Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of species based on evolutionary ancestry. Cladistics is distinguished from other taxonomic systems because it focuses on evolution rather than similarities between species, and because it places heavy emphasis on objective, quantitative analysis....
.

Structure prediction and simulation

Complementary to the field of structural genomics, protein structure prediction
Protein structure prediction

Protein structure prediction is one of the most important goals pursued by bioinformatics and theoretical chemistry. Its aim is the prediction of the three-dimensional structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences, sometimes including additional relevant information such as the structures of related proteins....
 seeks to develop efficient ways to provide plausible models for proteins whose structures have not yet been determined experimentally . The most successful type of structure prediction, known as homology modeling
Homology modeling

Homology modeling, also known as comparative modeling refers to constructing an atomic-resolution model of the "target" protein from its primary structure and an experimental three-dimensional structure of a related homologous protein ....
, relies on the existence of a "template" structure with sequence similarity to the protein being modeled; structural genomics' goal is to provide sufficient representation in solved structures to model most of those that remain. Although producing accurate models remains a challenge when only distantly related template structures are available, it has been suggested that sequence alignment is the bottleneck in this process, as quite accurate models can be produced if a "perfect" sequence alignment is known. Many structure prediction methods have served to inform the emerging field of protein engineering
Protein engineering

Protein engineering is the application of science, mathematics, and economics to the process of developing useful or valuable proteins. It is a young discipline, with much research currently taking place into the understanding of protein folding and protein recognition for protein design principles....
, in which novel protein folds have already been designed. A more complex computational problem is the prediction of intermolecular interactions, such as in molecular docking and protein-protein interaction prediction
Protein-protein interaction prediction

Protein-protein interaction prediction is a field combining bioinformatics and structural biology in an attempt to identify and catalog interactions between pairs or groups of proteins....
.

The processes of protein folding and binding can be simulated using techniques derived from molecular dynamics
Molecular dynamics

Molecular dynamics is a form of computer simulation in which atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a period of time by approximations of known physics,...
, which increasingly take advantage of distributed computing
Distributed computing

Distributed computing deals with hardware and software systems containing more than one processing element or Computer data storage element, Concurrent computing processes, or multiple programs, running under a loosely or tightly controlled regime....
 as in the Folding@Home
Folding@home

Folding@home is a distributed computing project designed to perform computationally intensive simulations of protein folding and other molecular dynamics ....
 project. The folding of small alpha-helical protein domains such as the villin
Villin

Villin is a 92.5 atomic mass unit tissue-specific actin-binding protein associated with the actin core bundle of the brush border. Villin contains multiple gelsolin-like domains capped by a small "headpiece" at the C-terminus consisting of a fast and independently-folding three-helix bundle that is stabilized by hydrophobic interactions....
 headpiece and the HIV
HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that can lead to AIDS , a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections....
 accessory protein have been successfully simulated in silico, and hybrid methods that combine standard molecular dynamics with quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a set of principles underlying the most fundamental known description of all physical systems at the microscopic scale . Notable amongst these principles are both a dual wave-like and particle-like behavior of matter and radiation, and prediction of probabilities in situations where classical physics predicts certaintie...
 calculations have allowed exploration of the electronic states of rhodopsin
Rhodopsin

Rhodopsin, also known as visual purple, is a pigment of the retina that is responsible for both the formation of the photoreceptor cells and the first events in the perception of light....
s.

Nutrition

Most microorganism
Microorganism

A microorganism or microbe is an organism that is microscopic . The study of microorganisms is called microbiology, a subject that began with Anton van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of microorganisms in 1675, using a microscope of his own design....
s and plants can biosynthesize all 20 standard amino acids, while animals (including humans) must obtain some of the amino acids from the diet
Diet (nutrition)

In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat....
.

The amino acids that an organism cannot synthesize on its own are referred to as essential amino acids. Key enzymes that synthesize certain amino acids are not present in animals - such as aspartokinase
Aspartokinase

Aspartokinase is an enzyme that catalysis the phosphorylation of the amino acid aspartate. This reaction is the first step in the biosynthesis of three essential amino acids: methionine, lysine, and Threonine, known as the "aspartate family"....
, which catalyzes the first step in the synthesis of lysine
Lysine

Lysine is an a-amino acid with the chemical formula HO2CCH4NH2. This amino acid is an essential amino acid, which means that humans cannot synthesize it....
, methionine
Methionine

Methionine is an a-amino acid with the chemical formula HO2CCHCH2CH2SCH3. This Essential amino acid is classified as nonpolar....
, and threonine
Threonine

Threonine is an a-amino acid with the chemical formula HO2CCHCHCH3. Its codons are ACU, ACA, ACC, and ACG. This essential amino acid is classified as Chemical polarity....
 from aspartate. If amino acids are present in the environment, microorganisms can conserve energy by taking up the amino acids from their surroundings and downregulating their biosynthetic pathways.

In animals, amino acids are obtained through the consumption of foods containing protein. Ingested proteins are broken down through digestion
Digestion

Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breaking down of food into smaller components, to a form that can be Absorption, for instance, by a blood stream....
, which typically involves denaturation
Denaturation (biochemistry)

Denaturation is a process in which proteins or nucleic acids lose their structure by application of some external stress or compound for example, treatment of proteins with strong acids or bases, high concentrations of inorganic salts, organic compound solvents , or heat....
 of the protein through exposure to acid
Acid

An acid is traditionally considered any chemical compound that, when dissolved in water, gives a solution with a hydrogen ion Activity greater than in pure water, i.e....
 and hydrolysis
Hydrolysis

Hydrolysis is a chemical reaction during which one or more water are split into hydrogen and hydroxide ions which may go on to participate in further reactions....
 by enzymes called protease
Protease

A protease is any enzyme that conducts proteolysis, that is, begins protein catabolism by hydrolysis of the peptide bonds that link amino acids together in the polypeptide chain, which form a molecule of protein....
s. Some ingested amino acids are used for protein biosynthesis, while others are converted to glucose
Glucose

Glucose , a monosaccharide also known as grape sugar, blood sugar, or corn sugar, is a very important carbohydrate in biology....
 through gluconeogenesis
Gluconeogenesis

Gluconeogenesis is a metabolic pathway that results in the generation of glucose from non-carbohydrate carbon substrates such as lactic acid, glycerol, and glucogenic amino acids....
, or fed into the citric acid cycle
Citric acid cycle

The citric acid cycle ? also known as the tricarboxylic acid cycle ; the Krebs cycle; or, more rarely, the Szent-Gy?rgyi-Krebs cycle) ? is a series of enzyme-catalysed chemical reactions of central importance in all living cell s that use oxygen as part of cellular respiration....
. This use of protein as a fuel is particularly important under starvation
Starvation

Starvation is a severe reduction in vitamin, nutrient, and energy intake, and is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation causes permanent organ damage and, eventually, death....
 conditions as it allows the body's own proteins to be used to support life, particularly those found in muscle
MUSCLE

MUSCLE is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.MUSCLE is integrated into UGENE bioinformatics tool as a plugin....
. Amino acids are also an important dietary source of nitrogen
Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674?. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere....
.

History

Proteins were recognized as a distinct class of biological molecules in the eighteenth century by Antoine Fourcroy
Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy

Antoine Fran?ois, comte de Fourcroy , was a France chemist and a contemporary of Lavoisier. Fourcroy collaborated with Lavoisier, Guyton de Morveau, and Claude Berthollet on the M?thode de Nomenclature Chimique , a work that helped standardize chemical nomenclature....
 and others, distinguished by the molecules' ability to coagulate or flocculate
Flocculation

Flocculation is a process where a solute comes out of solution in the form of floc or flakes. The action differs from Precipitation in that the solute coming out of solution does so at a concentration generally below its solubility limit in the liquid....
 under treatments with heat or acid. Noted examples at the time included albumin from egg white
Egg white

File:Chicken egg01 monovular.jpgEgg white is the common name for the clear liquid contained within an Egg . It is the cytoplasm of the egg, which until fertilization is a single Cell ....
s, blood
Blood

Blood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's Cell s ? such as nutrients and oxygen ? and transports waste products away from those same cells....
, serum albumin
Serum albumin

Serum albumin, often referred to simply as albumin, is the most abundant plasma protein in humans and other mammals. Albumin is essential for maintaining the osmotic pressure needed for proper distribution of body fluids between intravascular compartments and body tissues....
, fibrin
Fibrin

Fibrin is a fibrous protein involved in the clotting of blood, and is non globular. It is a fibrillar protein that is Polymerization to form a "mesh" that forms a hemostasis plug or clot over a wound site....
, and wheat gluten
Gluten

Gluten is a composite of the proteins gliadin and glutenin. These exist, conjoined with starch, in the endosperms of some Triticeae glutens cereal, notably wheat, rye, and barley....
. Dutch chemist Gerhardus Johannes Mulder carried out elemental analysis
Elemental analysis

Elemental analysis is a process where a sample of some material is analyzed for its chemical element and sometimes isotope composition. Elemental analysis can be qualitative , and it can be quantitative ....
 of common proteins and found that nearly all proteins had the same empirical formula
Empirical formula

In chemistry, the empirical formula of a chemical compound is a complex expression of the relative numbers of each type of atom in it. An empirical formula makes references to isomerism, structure, or absolute number of atoms....
. The term "protein" to describe these molecules was proposed in 1838 by Mulder's associate Jöns Jakob Berzelius
Jöns Jakob Berzelius

Friherre J?ns Jacob Berzelius was a Sweden chemist. He worked out the modern technique of chemical formula, and is together with John Dalton, Antoine Lavoisier, and Robert Boyle considered a father of modern chemistry....
. Mulder went on to identify the products of protein degradation such as the amino acid
Amino acid

In chemistry, an amino acid is a molecule containing both amine and carboxyl functional groups. These molecules are particularly important in biochemistry, where this term refers to alpha-amino acids with the general formula H2NCHRCOOH, where R is an organic substituent....
 leucine
Leucine

Leucine is an a-amino acid with the chemical formula HO2CCHCH2CH2. It is an essential amino acid, which means that humans cannot synthesise it....
 for which he found a (nearly correct) molecular weight of 131 Da
Atomic mass unit

The unified atomic mass unit , or dalton or, sometimes, universal mass unit, is a Units of measurement of mass used to express atomic weight and molecular masses....
.

The difficulty in purifying proteins in large quantities made them very difficult for early protein biochemists to study. Hence, early studies focused on proteins that could be purified in large quantities, e.g., those of blood
Blood

Blood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's Cell s ? such as nutrients and oxygen ? and transports waste products away from those same cells....
, egg white
Egg white

File:Chicken egg01 monovular.jpgEgg white is the common name for the clear liquid contained within an Egg . It is the cytoplasm of the egg, which until fertilization is a single Cell ....
, various toxin
Toxin

A toxin is a poisonous substance produced by living cells or organisms. For a toxic substance not produced by living organisms, "toxicant" is the more appropriate term, and "toxics" is an acceptable plural....
s, and digestive/metabolic enzymes obtained from slaughterhouse
Slaughterhouse

A slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir ,or freezing works , is a facility where animals are killed and processed into meat foods....
s. In the late 1950s, the Armour Hot Dog Co.
Armour and Company

Armour and Company was an United States slaughterhouse and Meat packing industry company founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1867 by the Armour brothers, led by Philip Danforth Armour....
 purified 1 kg (= one million milligrams) of pure bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A
Ribonuclease A

Ribonuclease A is an endonuclease that cleaves single-stranded RNA. Bovine pancreatic RNase A is one of the classic model systems of protein science....
 and made it freely available to scientists around the world.

Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling

Linus Carl Pauling was an United States scientist, peace activist, author and list of educators. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists in any field of the 20th century....
 is credited with the successful prediction of regular protein secondary structure
Secondary structure

In biochemistry and structural biology, secondary structure is the general three-dimensional form of local segments of biopolymers such as proteins and nucleic acids ....
s based on hydrogen bonding, an idea first put forth by William Astbury
William Astbury

William Thomas Astbury Fellow of the Royal Society was an English people physicist and molecular biology who made pioneering X-ray diffraction studies of biological molecules....
 in 1933. Later work by Walter Kauzmann
Walter Kauzmann

Walter Kauzmann was an United States chemist and professor emeritus of Princeton University.He developed the Kauzmann paradox in thermodynamics....
 on denaturation
Denaturation (biochemistry)

Denaturation is a process in which proteins or nucleic acids lose their structure by application of some external stress or compound for example, treatment of proteins with strong acids or bases, high concentrations of inorganic salts, organic compound solvents , or heat....
, based partly on previous studies by Kaj Linderstrøm-Lang, contributed an understanding of protein folding
Protein folding

Protein folding is the physical process by which a polypeptide folds into its characteristic and functional protein structure.Each protein begins as a polypeptide, translated from a sequence of mRNA as a linear chain of amino acids....
 and structure mediated by hydrophobic interactions. In 1949 Fred Sanger correctly determined the amino acid sequence of insulin
Insulin

Insulin is a hormone with extensive effects on both metabolism and several other body systems . Insulin causes most of the body's cells to take up glucose from the blood , storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle, and stops use of fat as an energy source....
, thus conclusively demonstrating that proteins consisted of linear polymers of amino acids rather than branched chains, colloid
Colloid

A colloid is a type of chemical mixture where one substance is dispersed evenly throughout another. The particles of the dispersed substance are only suspended in the mixture, unlike a solution, where they are completely dissolved within....
s, or cyclol
Cyclol

The cyclol hypothesis is the first tertiary structure of a protein folding, globular protein protein. It was developed by Dorothy Maud Wrinch in the late 1930s, and was based on three assumptions....
s. The first atomic-resolution structures of proteins were solved by X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography

X-ray crystallography is a method of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a crystal and scatters into many different directions....
 in the 1960s and by NMR
Protein nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Protein nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a field of structural biology in which NMR spectroscopy is used to obtain information about the structure and dynamics of proteins....
 in the 1980s. As of 2006, the Protein Data Bank
Protein Data Bank

The Protein Data Bank is a repository for the 3-D structural data of large biological molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids. . The data, typically obtained by X-ray crystallography or Protein NMR and submitted by biologists and biochemistry from around the world, are released into the public domain, and can be accessed at no charge...
 has nearly 40,000 atomic-resolution structures of proteins. In more recent times, cryo-electron microscopy
Cryo-electron microscopy

Electron cryomicroscopy is a form of electron microscopy where the sample is studied at cryogenic temperatures . CryoEM is developing popularity in structural biology....
 of large macromolecular assemblies and computational protein structure prediction
Protein structure prediction

Protein structure prediction is one of the most important goals pursued by bioinformatics and theoretical chemistry. Its aim is the prediction of the three-dimensional structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences, sometimes including additional relevant information such as the structures of related proteins....
 of small protein domains are two methods approaching atomic resolution.

See also


External links

  • , 'When a "tape" of mRNA passes through the "playing head" of a ribosome, the "notes" produced are amino acids and the pieces of music they make up are proteins.'
  • , also called "Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics" and previously "Proteins: Structure, Function, and Genetics" (1986–1995).


Databases and projects

  • curates protein-chemical interactions, as well as gene/protein-disease relationships and chemical-disease relationships.
  • A Meta search engine (29 databases) for gene and protein information.
  • (see also , presenting short accounts on selected proteins from the PDB)
  • : rotatable, zoomable 3D model with wiki annotations for every known protein molecular structure.


Tutorials and educational websites

  • on proteins
  • - Home Page for Learning Environmental Chemistry