A tale of two polymers: new insights into helical filaments.

Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology ·Vol. 4 ·No. 8 ·2003-08-00 ·Pages 621-30

Egelman EH

Abstract

Many proteins function as helical polymers within the cell. Two intensively studied examples are eukaryotic actin and bacterial RecA, which belong to two different protein superfamilies. However, most other members of these superfamilies do not polymerize into helical filaments. General features of polymorphism, cooperativity and allostery that emerge from studies of eukaryotic actin and bacterial RecA raise more general issues about how conserved these filamentous structures have been during evolution.

MeSH Terms

Actins/chemistry,metabolism Animals Biopolymers Escherichia coli Proteins/chemistry,metabolism Evolution, Molecular Models, Molecular Protein Conformation Protein Subunits/chemistry,metabolism Rec A Recombinases/chemistry,metabolism Viral Proteins/chemistry,metabolism

Chemicals

Actins Biopolymers Escherichia coli Proteins Protein Subunits Viral Proteins MreB protein, E coli Rec A Recombinases

Authors & Affiliations

1 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID

Egelman Edward H

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908-0733, USA. egelman@virginia.edu

Article Info

Journal

Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology

Abbr.

Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol

ISSN

1471-0072

DOI

10.1038/nrm1176

egelman@virginia.edu

Published

2003-08-00

Pages

621-30

Language

English

Region

England

NLM ID

100962782

Subset

External Links

PubMed source DOI: 10.1038/nrm1176 View journal details

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