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Nature 433, 367-369 (27 January 2005) | doi:10.1038/433367a; Published online 26 January 2005

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Cell biology:  Border crossing

James U. Bowie1

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The 'translocon' complex, which determines whether a protein segment will be inserted into or pushed through the cell membrane, seems to make the decision by performing a thermodynamic measurement.

Cells have a border security system that would put any nation to shame. They need to decide millions of times every nanosecond whether to allow something in or out, and a mistake could mean death.

  1. James U. Bowie is in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Molecular Biology Institute, and the UCLA-DOE Laboratory of Genomics and Proteomics, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1570, USA.
    e-mail: Email: bowie@mbi.ucla.edu

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