What knowledge have you connected with past knowledge?

Before taking Biochemistry I knew of enzymes and some of their properties. Mostly I remember the Lock&Key analogy. However I didn't know that as of more recently, enzymes are thought to utilize an Induced Fit mechanism. This means that an enzyme can conform to several subtrates, not just 1 specific substrate as previously thought. Zymogens are enzymes that serve a function of rendering particular precursor enzymes irreversibly inactive. This is important because our body creates certain precursors that can be harmful and therefore must be inactivated and preferrably irreversively. While learning about the foot-and-mouth disease protein I am better able to understand the structure and what specific role the subunits play. Even subunits that have a domain of function that is still unknown, gets assigned a subunit label DUF; domain of unknown function. I am also very interested in phamacology and the way researchers can use what is known about enzymes to help them develop medicine that takes advantage of this knowledge. Since many proteins can be grouped by common subunits, this makes creating drugs easier by having one drug that works for multiple proteins.

Find a protein using PDB explorer -describe your protein including what disease state or other real-world application it has

The particular protein I have chosen, shown here at the left is the Foot-And-Mouth Disease Virus Oligosaccharide Receptor Complex. Located on this structure are many difulside bonds. When these bonds are in a state of reduction, the virus can maintain its infectivity which is a key factor of the virus life cycle. This protein also contains four sub-units; each of which contains beta pleated sheets depicted by yellow arrows while alpha helixes are presented by green crayons. Three of which sub-units are categorized as being part of the RHV-like superfamily. The RHV-like superfamily also contains the Seneca Valley Virus-100 along with many other virus proteins. This particular virus shares 179 amino acids with the Foot-And-Mouth Virus. The fourth sub-unit categorized as being part of the DUF-1865 superfamily. DUF stands for Domain of Unknown Function and is commonly found in viral proteins. The picture on the right depicts the DUF-1864 amino acid protein. Real world applications include research of the viral life cycle with respect to quaternary structure and methodoligies in the inhibition of replication of such viruses.

Photos can be directly viewed at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/cdd/cddsrv.cgi?uid=149869 and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/mmdb/mmdbsrv.cgi?uid=1QQP