Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: MSMicrosymposia crystallized so that every subunit is in an identical environment.Electron microscopy has been one of the main techniques used to study such polymers, but resolution has been limited by disorder and heterogeneity, and in many cases three-dimensional reconstructions have not even been possible due to very weak scattering.An interative single-particle type approach to 3D reconstruction has proven to be remarkably successful in studying actin filaments, protein-DNA filaments, bacterial pili, filamentous bacteriophage, etc.A number of examples will be shown, and some general conclusions drawn.One is that subunits in these filaments frequently have the ability to switch among multiple different states.The notion that there is a single 'structure' for a polymer may thus be misleading.Another conclusion is that small changes in sequence can lead to large changes in the quaternary structure of these polymers, and this may be an important mechanism in the evolutionary divergence of organisms.
Language: English
Topic: Connexins and lens biology
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2335141117