4 ms·
It makes sense that we find this on occasion (once you accept that there exists some combination of folding that produces this). Once one protein folds in a way
by Joof 11y ago
It makes sense that we find this on occasion (once you accept that there exists some combination of folding that produces this). Once one protein folds in a way that can induce the same modification, it will replicate rather quickly.
Are there proteins that cause looping multiple-step reactions as well? Maybe that's what this is and I need to read more :p.
- gilleain 11y agoWhat do you mean by "looping multiple-step reaction"? If prions are "A'(A)->A'", do you mean "A'(B)->B', B'(A)->A'"? (Where A/A' are different forms of the same structure and A(B)->C means A acts on B to make C).
- Joof 11y agoYeah. Probably wouldn't work / there would be some weird equilibrium.
- gilleain 11y agoWell, I don't know of any protein folding examples, but it seems a lot like an "autocatalytic cycle" which is an interesting part of origin-of-life theories. Stuart Kauffman wrote some things about this, but here is a counterpoint from Leslie E Orgel: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060018 http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jour...
- Joof 11y agoMakes logical sense that it would be a part of life (once you can synthesize a few things from a given one thing you can build all sorts of logical structures...), but I see there are tons of biological probabilities at play that I don't understand. How did school manage to make biology so boring? They did it with math too, so I shouldn't be surprised, but damn. Would love resources on an intro to bio for the CS folk. I'm sure there are some good ones out there.
- brians 11y agoYes. We call these "cells". Typically there are many more than two elements of the self-reinforcing complex.
- gilleain 11y agoMaybe it wasn't clear. The transformation A(B) is one where "A" catalyses a change in fold of "B".
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- nitrogen 11y agoIt sounds like a biological multiquine. http://mamememo.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/qlobe.html?m=1 http://mamememo.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/qlobe.html?m=1 http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?t=107115 http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?t=107115