1. What Specific Aspects of Protein Biology Interest You?
2. Consider the relationship between DNA sequence and protein structure. To what extent is protein conformation genetically determined? To what extent is protein function genetically determined? What does this suggest about protein evolution (or evolution in general)?
3. Keeping in mind your response to question 2, consider that protein engineering, as a field, is still in its infancy. In your opinion, what are the challenges of synthesizing "designer proteins"? Provide a successful example from the literature, and briefly explain why it was able to work. This is an intentionally broad question, and could include anything from gene therapy to phosphomemetics used in research.
4. Pick two of the structures listen in Figure 2.12 and describe some of the structural motifs that you can identify in each of them. Note: I
would suggest using CN3D or some other structure viewing software in order to make this a more meaningful exercise. You can highlight the primary amino acid sequence to highlight their location inside the protein.
b. Each structure in the figure has its name and a 4 digit protein bank identifier (PBID) shown in brackets. (e.g. Fig 2.12a is Uteroglobin[1utg]) You can easily find this structure by typing ‘1utg' into the NCBI structure database: