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When we say "protein" with respect to food, what is generally meant is material that contains amino acids. Every protein is, at its heart, a long string of amino acids, which then gets processed through some combination of folding, cutting, and bonding together with other molecules.
Much of our food is made out of cells, whether animal (e.g., meat)...
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It's a mix of all the proteins in whatever organism the food is coming from. Some (especially vegetable/grain) sources might have fairly specific proteins present because you are eating a specific part of that organism which is enriched in that particular protein, but ultimately the specific proteins don't matter much unless you have some sort of allergy. ...
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As one might suspect, if a label says just "protein" without being more specific, it means any protein, without being more specific.
The reason we are not that interested in the details is that the body denatures most proteins in the acidic stomach and the intestines and breaks them up into their building blocks, the amino acids, without really ...
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Meaning of Motif in Molecular Biology
In English the word, motif (borrowed from the French), has a variety of meanings in different areas. The one that is borrowed in molecular biology is that of pattern together with a hint, perhaps, of emblem or badge.
The word pattern indicates both repetition and a master mould from which copies are made. In molecular ...
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Determining function and predicting function are two separate things. For example, a screwdriver's shape determines its function, but it might be hard to predict that function unless you also see some screws.
There are obviously a zillion different other molecules a protein might interact with, so just from its shape one probably couldn't tell much. However, ...
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The other answers are correct: foods you eat include a mix of proteins, which are mostly cut into their constituent amino acids in your digestive system. However, while a burger (meat or veggie), might contain thousands or millions of distinct proteins, there are some proteins that much more common than others. For example, in blood plasma, there are more ...
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The problem of protein folding is known as Levinthal's paradox: a typical protein of a few hundreds amino-acids can fold into an astronomically big number of configurations, all of them consistent with the laws of physics (e.g., having the same or nearly the same energy). Yet the actual protein in a cell (nearly) always folds in the same structure and all ...
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The process of self-degradation of a protease is called autolysis, and the rate of autolysis depends on many factors including temperature, pH, and enzyme concentration.1,2 While most proteases show reduced proteolytic activity with increased autolysis, some proteases demonstrate increased activity after they are self-hydrolyzed. The most notable example is ...
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Re:
When they say "motif", do they mean that the gene PF1193 has a
subsequence which is found many times in the DNA sequence of the gene
that encodes ferritin- and Dps-like proteins ? And this may involve
that they have similar characteristics/properties ?
Yes, although motif sequences may not be exactly identical, as what really matters is the 3-...
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Scope of this answer
As with any machine or useful artefact, the structures (including shape and surface chemo-electrical properties) of proteins determine their ability to fulfil the functions they perform. This relationship (and the way in which the structure arises from the amino acid composition and sequence) is illustrated in any textbook on ...
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