Protein engineering is the process of developing useful or valuable proteins. It is a young discipline, with much research taking place into the understanding of protein folding and recognition for protein design principles. It has been used to improve the function of many enzymes for industrial catalysis. In rational protein design, a scientist uses detailed knowledge of the structure and function of a protein to make desired changes. In general, this has the advantage of being inexpensive and technically easy, since site-directed mutagenesis methods are well-developed. However, its major drawback is that detailed structural knowledge of a protein is often unavailable, and, even when available, it can be very difficult to predict the effects of various mutations since structural information most often provide a static picture of a protein structure. Engineered protein pores have several potential applications in biotechnology: as sensor elements in stochastic detection and ultrarapid DNA sequencing, as nanoreactors to observe single-molecule chemistry, and in the construction of nano- and micro-devices. One important class of pores contains molecular adapters, which provide internal binding sites for small molecules. Mutants of the alpha-hemolysin (alphaHL) pore that bind the adapter beta-cyclodextrin (betaCD) approximately 10,000 times tightly than the wild type. Here you can see a crystal structure of the M113F alpha-hemolysin mutant complexed with beta-cyclodextrin (PDB code: 3M3R)
#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #hemolysin ... #cyclodextrin ... #engineering ... #biotechnology ... #xray
Protein rendered with @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint
#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #hemolysin ... #cyclodextrin ... #engineering ... #biotechnology ... #xray
Protein rendered with @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint
