Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 7 August 1998:
Vol. 281. no. 5378, pp. 763 - 764
DOI: 10.1126/science.281.5378.763a
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

News of the Week

PROTEIN CHEMISTRY:
A Two-Piece Protein Assembles Itself

Gretchen Vogel

MONT-ROLLAND, QUEBEC--Proteins do many of the trickiest jobs in living cells, catalyzing reactions, passing signals, and providing basic structure. Now scientists have discovered a bacterial protein with yet another talent: seamlessly splicing together two other protein pieces. At an evolutionary biology meeting here last week, a molecular biologist reported that he and his colleagues have identified a molecular matchmaker, a protein-within-a-protein called a split intein, which brings together two pieces of protein encoded on very different parts of the chromosome, knits the pieces together, and then neatly cuts itself out.

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)