My latest feature in Current Biology deals with complexes built from several identical or different protein subunits. There are good reasons why nature likes to build highly symmetrical assemblies from identical protein units, but on the other hand there are also good reasons why such structures may diversify and evolve highly complex arrangements of different subunits, with the proteasome, shown below, being a case in point.
Symmetry and complexity in protein oligomers
Current Biology, Volume 22, Issue 6, R175-R177, 20 March 2012
doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.03.001
summary pagePDF file
(NB: my features remain on free access only until the next issue appears, i.e. normally 2 weeks, sometimes 3, and they return to free access a year after publication)
(image: © Prof. Michael Groll/Technische Universitaet München.)
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