Proteins are the most versatile macro molecules in living systems and serve crucial functions in essentially all biological processes. The proteins they fold up into three dimensional structures that are determined by the sequence of amino acids in the protein polymer.
Our understanding of life at the molecular level is highly dependent on the ability to map the molecular details of individual proteins and nucleic acids as well as their interactions with each other and with small molecules (inhibitors, cofactors, substrates, etc.). The determination of 3-D structures of proteins is crucial for the understanding of these interactions as well as their structure–function relationships, which also has many practical applications in drug design and protein engineering.
The Rules of Protein Structure. The function of a protein is determined by its shape. The shape of a protein is determined by its primary structure (sequence of amino acids). The sequence of amino acids in a protein is determined by the sequence of nucleotides in the gene (DNA) encoding it.
