Page 100 - The Miracle of Protein

98 THE MIRACLE OF PROTEIN

The picture above shows the protein before and after it is folded.
Amino acids come out of the ribosome as a straight line, but they
cannot function as proteins until they fold.

be folded in what order, how much and where it should be and
this plan is unique to each shape. If only one folding is done in

the wrong order, in the wrong direction, or the wrong manner,
the final result will be defective or completely useless. For ex-
ample, if you are trying to build a plane, but forget one folding,
or do it in the wrong direction, the wings won’t form. For pro-

teins, the situation is much more complex. If a single amino
acid is joined in the wrong order or in the wrong direction,
protein will assume a defected form and rendered useless. For
example, if the globe shape of myoglobin protein -responsible
for storing the oxygen in muscles- is compromised, its length

will be 20 times longer than its width, and thus will not be able
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to carry out its functions. Naturally, such a situation will be
fatal for us. The amino acids that leave the ribosome as a
straight chain is not a functional protein. A wonderful system

inside the cell called the polypeptide chain will help these mol-
ecules obtain their correct three-dimensional structures. High-
ly specialized folding proteins are assigned for this duty.