Chemical Energy Cell Conversion Researched
Posted on: Monday, 27 November 2006, 15:00 CST
U.S. scientists have discovered how an important protein converts chemical energy to mechanical force, thus powering the process of cell division.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers say their new structural model helps solve a scientific mystery: how the protein dynein fuels itself to perform cellular functions vital to life. Those functions include mitosis, or cell division into identical cells.
Dynein uses energy derived from ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, a molecule that is the principal form of energy for cells. The lack of a comprehensive and detailed molecular structure for dynein has kept scientists largely in the dark about how the protein converts ATP into mechanical force, said Nikolay Dokholyan, assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the UNC School of Medicine.
Dokholyan said the dynein puzzle is similar to figuring out how auto engines make cars move: You have an engine up front that burns gas, but we didn't know how the wheels are made to move.
The study was published in the Nov. 22 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: United Press International
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