Flexing muscle with just one amino acid
Service, R.F.
Science 271(5245): 31
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 8539593 Document Number: 458127
A group of Canadian researchers may have explained the way in which troponin-C undergoes a crucial shape change that alters its chemical reactions with neighboring proteins, leading eventually to cell contraction. The research team, led by Brian Sykes of the University of Edmonton in Alberta, used nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to determine the protein's structure and its interaction with calcium. They found that a single amino acid--the glutamic acid at position 41 in the protein chain--controls the shape change in troponin-C by dragging a section of the protein toward a newly bound calcium ion.