Session T40: Focus Session: Knots and Loops in Biomolecules
2:30 PM–5:06 PM, Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Room: 412
Sponsoring Unit:
DBP
Chair: Joanna Sulkowska, University of California, San Diego
Abstract ID: BAPS.2009.MAR.T40.6
Abstract: T40.00006 : Intricate knots in proteins: statistics, function and evolution
3:54 PM–4:30 PM
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Abstract 
Author:
Peter Virnau
(Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)
Protein knots, mostly regarded as intriguing oddities, are gradually being recognized as significant structural motifs. These elusive knots are present in the backbone of only about 1 in 200 proteins. It is by and large unclear how these exceptional structures actually fold, and only recently, experiments and simulations have begun to shed some light on this issue. In this talk I will present an overview of these peculiar structures from the current version of the Protein Data Bank and discuss some particularly intriguing examples of this set as well as evolutionary and functional implications.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2009.MAR.T40.6