New Insight Into Architecture Of Cellular Protein Factories: Efficient Working In Confined Spaces
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 - 20:42
in Physics & Chemistry
Each cell in an organism possesses its own protein factories known as ribosomes. Every second, these enzyme complexes produce new proteins with messenger molecules (mRNA) from the cell nucleus as blueprints. In order to generate as many proteins as possible at the same time, several ribosomes cluster together to form an “industrial complex” – the polysome - and read simultaneously the same messenger molecule. Scientists have now, for the first time, been able to reveal the three-dimensional structure of these complexes.