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Protein assembles into Archimedean geometry

A natural protein has been engineered to self-associate into an architecture previously unknown among biological molecules: a cage structure based on one of the classic polyhedra identified by Archimedes.
  1. Todd O. Yeates

    1. Todd O. Yeates is in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and at the DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095 USA.

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A combination of ideas from geometry, computer science and molecular biology is ushering in a golden age for the design of nanometre-scale materials made from protein building blocks1. Naturally occurring cellular and viral structures highlight the diverse architectures that can be formed from protein molecules, and also hint at possible technological applications for designer proteins with predetermined shapes2. Writing in Nature, Malay et al.3 report the production of a surprising and extraordinary protein structure: a cage-like architecture composed of 264 protein subunits held together at their edges by gold ions.

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Nature 569, 340-342 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01407-z

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 13 May 2019: An earlier version of this article said that only 5 of the 11 thiol groups of an undecameric protein participate in metal-mediated connections to assemble into a pentagonal icositetrahedron. The correct number is 10 of the 11. The main text, figure and caption have been corrected accordingly.

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