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Structural biology
 
 
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Structural biology is a branch of molecular biology
Molecular biology

Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecule level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry....
, 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 biophysics
Biophysics

Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that employs and develops theories and methods of the physical sciences for the investigation of biology systems....
 concerned with the molecular structure of biological macromolecule
Macromolecule

The term macromolecule by definition implies "large molecule". In the context of biochemistry, the term may be applied to the four conventional biopolymers , as well as non-polymeric molecules with large molecular mass such as macrocycles....
s, especially protein
Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
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, how they acquire the structures they have, and how alterations in their structures affect their function. This subject is of great interest to biologists because macromolecules carry out most of the functions of cells
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....
, and because it is only by coiling into specific three-dimensional shapes that they are able to perform these functions.






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Structural biology is a branch of molecular biology
Molecular biology

Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecule level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry....
, 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 biophysics
Biophysics

Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that employs and develops theories and methods of the physical sciences for the investigation of biology systems....
 concerned with the molecular structure of biological macromolecule
Macromolecule

The term macromolecule by definition implies "large molecule". In the context of biochemistry, the term may be applied to the four conventional biopolymers , as well as non-polymeric molecules with large molecular mass such as macrocycles....
s, especially protein
Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
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, how they acquire the structures they have, and how alterations in their structures affect their function. This subject is of great interest to biologists because macromolecules carry out most of the functions of cells
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....
, and because it is only by coiling into specific three-dimensional shapes that they are able to perform these functions. This architecture, the "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....
" of molecules, depends in a complicated way on the molecules' basic composition, or "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 ....
s." Structural biology is that branch of life science,which deals with the study of molecular strucuture of biological macromolecules like proteins and nucleic acids.

Biomolecule
Biomolecule

A biomolecule is any organic chemistry molecule that is produced by a living organism, including large polymeric molecules such as proteins, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids as well as small molecules such as primary metabolites, secondary metabolites, and natural products....
s are too small to see in detail even with the most advanced light microscope
Microscope

A microscope is an Laboratory equipment for viewing objects that are too small to be seen by the naked or unaided eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy....
s. The methods that structural biologists use to determine their structures generally involve measurements on vast numbers of identical molecules at the same time. These methods include crystallography
Crystallography

Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in solids. In older usage, it is the scientific study of crystals....
, NMR, ultra fast laser spectroscopy
Ultra fast laser spectroscopy

Ultra-fast laser spectroscopy is the study of molecules on extremely short time scales after their excitation with a pulsed laser. This method is used extensively to examine the energy states and electron dynamics of any molecule whose reaction to light is of interest....
, electron microscopy, electron cryomicroscopy (cryo-EM), Dual Polarisation Interferometry
Dual Polarisation Interferometry

Dual polarisation interferometry is an analytical technique in chemistry that can probe layers adsorbed to the surface of a Waveguide by using the evanescent wave of a laser beam confined to the waveguide....
 and circular dichroism
Circular dichroism

Circular dichroism is the differential absorption of left- and right-handed circular polarization light.A CD Spectrometer is an instrument that records this phenomenon as a function of wavelength....
. Most often researchers use them to study the static "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....
s" of macromolecules. But variations on these methods are also used to watch nascent or denatured
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....
 molecules assume or reassume their native states. See 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....
.

A third approach that structural biologists take to understanding structure is 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....
 to look for patterns among the diverse 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....
s that give rise to particular shapes. Researchers often can deduce aspects of the structure of integral membrane protein
Integral membrane protein

An Integral Membrane Protein is a protein molecule that is permanently attached to the biological membrane. Such proteins can be separated from the biological membranes only using detergents, nonpolar solvents, or sometimes Denaturation agents....
s based on the membrane topology
Membrane topology

In biochemistry, the membrane topology of an transmembrane protein describes which portions of the amino acid sequence of the protein lie within the plane of the surrounding lipid bilayer and which portions protrude into the watery environment on either side....
 predicted by hydrophobicity analysis. See 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....
.

In the past few years it has become possible for highly accurate physical molecular model
Molecular model

A molecular model, in this article, is a physical model that represents molecules and their processes. The creation of mathematical models of molecular properties and behaviour is molecular modelling, and their graphical depiction is molecular graphics, but these topics are closely linked and each uses techniques from the others....
s to complement the in silico study of biological structures.

See also

  • 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 ....
  • 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 ....
  • 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....
  • quaternary structure
    Quaternary structure

    In biochemistry, quaternary structure is the arrangement of multiple protein folding protein molecules in a multi-subunit complex....
  • structural domain
  • structural motif
    Structural motif

    In an unbranched, polymer biological molecule, such as a protein or a strand of RNA, a structural motif is a three-dimensional structural element or protein folding within the chain, which appears also in a variety of other molecules....
  • 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....
  • molecular model
    Molecular model

    A molecular model, in this article, is a physical model that represents molecules and their processes. The creation of mathematical models of molecular properties and behaviour is molecular modelling, and their graphical depiction is molecular graphics, but these topics are closely linked and each uses techniques from the others....
  • cooperativity
    Cooperativity

    Cooperativity is a phenomenon in biology displayed by enzymes or receptor s that have multiple binding sites. This is referred to as cooperative binding....
  • chaperonin
    Chaperonin

    A proportion of all newly-made proteins require assistance to convert from a linear chain of amino acids to a functional three-dimensional entity. This process is called protein folding....
  • 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....
  • stereochemistry
    Stereochemistry

    Stereochemistry, a subdiscipline of chemistry, involves the study of the relative spatial arrangement of atoms within molecules. An important branch of stereochemistry is the study of chirality molecules ....
  • resolution (electron density)
    Resolution (electron density)

    Resolution in terms of electron density is a measure of the resolvability in the electron density map of a molecule. In X-ray crystallography, resolution is the highest resolvable peak in the diffraction pattern....
  • Proteopedia
    Proteopedia

    Proteopedia is a collaborative wiki 3D encyclopedia of proteins and other molecules . Proteopedia contains a page for every entry in the Protein Data Bank , as well as pages that are more descriptive of protein structures in general, e.g....
     The collaborative, 3D encyclopedia of proteins and other molecules.


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