Chaperones and Protein Folding

Just read an interesting article on chaperones in the current Sci.Am. Their
central function remains that of promoting and enabling the proper 3-D
configuration of amino acid chains into finished protein, but many
additional functions involving intricate disassembly and reassembly of
proteins have also been found.

Question: does the current understanding of the elaborate involvement of
chaperones in protein folding mean that the old concept of "self assembly"
of proteins (in which the linear string of amino acids settles into
thermodynamic equilibrium) applies only to very short strings of amino
acids, and not to the longer ones which require the assistance of chaperones
which apparently mediate structures that do not always represent the
thermodynamically most efficient folding?



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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Chaperones and Protein Folding
    ... configuration of amino acid chains into finished protein, ... chaperones in protein folding mean that the old concept of "self assembly" ... and not to the longer ones which require the assistance of chaperones ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Mr Dawkins new book?
    ... amino acid will be added to the protein. ... Individual base pairs do not ... thereby gives a partial specification of a protein. ... base pair is like a letter, codons are like words. ...
    (uk.religion.christian)
  • Re: Experimental basis for the Non-Beneficial Gap Problem
    ... the listed units of structure space here are in numbers of amino acid ... You can't get larger structures without more amino acid ... the absolute number per protein. ... estimate the "Functional Sequence Complexity " of a protein ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Mr Dawkins new book?
    ... A codon is the three letter code in dna that specifies which ... amino acid will be added to the protein. ... Individual base pairs do not ... thereby gives a partial specification of a protein. ...
    (uk.religion.christian)
  • Re: Mr Dawkins new book?
    ... amino acid will be added to the protein. ... thereby gives a partial specification of a protein. ... letters are not very informative, ... base pair is like a letter, codons are like words. ...
    (uk.religion.christian)