Asia dominates

Misfolding Dominates Protein Evolution

The diverse array of protein functions depends upon these molecules’ reliable ability to fold into the native structures determined by their amino-acid sequences. Because mutations that alter a protein’s sequence frequently disrupt its folding, protein evolution explores protein sequence space conservatively, either by point mutations or recombination between related sequences. Attempts to engi...

IgE Augments and Dominates

Pro - athletic sentiment dominates open meeting

The Univers i ty Athlet ics Review Committee held an open meeting in Sewall Hall Monday night. The purpose of the meet ing was to field ques t ions and sugges t ions from members of the Rice community. The committee was formed by Dr. Hackerm a n . Mos t people h a v e assumed that the underlying motive was financial: can Rice afford to compete? At the meeting, it was never made clear whether th...

Transient misfolding dominates multidomain protein folding

Neighbouring domains of multidomain proteins with homologous tandem repeats have divergent sequences, probably as a result of evolutionary pressure to avoid misfolding and aggregation, particularly at the high cellular protein concentrations. Here we combine microfluidic-mixing single-molecule kinetics, ensemble experiments and molecular simulations to investigate how misfolding between the imm...

Host heterogeneity dominates West Nile virus transmission.

Heterogeneity in host populations and communities can have large effects on the transmission and control of a pathogen. In extreme cases, a few individuals give rise to the majority of secondary infections, which have been termed super spreading events. Here, we show that transmission of West Nile virus (WNV) is dominated by extreme heterogeneity in the host community, resulting in highly infla...