[HN Gopher] Largest protein yet discovered builds algal toxins
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       Largest protein yet discovered builds algal toxins
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 4 points
       Date   : 2024-08-19 19:28 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (phys.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
        
       | biofox wrote:
       | The impressive thing about this is not the size -- making long
       | peptide chains is easy -- it's the fact that this can be
       | consistently folded into a useful structure, without misfolding
       | or aggregating.
       | 
       | I have to wonder how much of the structure is functional, versus,
       | for lack of a better term, structural "bulk" that is unaffected
       | by misfolding.
        
       | UniverseHacker wrote:
       | These type of proteins "PKSs" are one of the most promising and
       | exciting areas of biotech research. They offer a path to make a
       | sort of programmable biochemical factory, where bacteria can make
       | a custom drug, plastic polymer, etc. in a predictable way. They
       | can also do some tricky chemistry that is almost impossible any
       | other way.
       | 
       | PKSs build a molecule piece by piece like a car assembly line,
       | and follow a predictable logic where you can tell from the parts
       | in the DNA exactly what chemical they will make. After 30+ years
       | of working on it bioengineers are finally figuring out how to
       | reliably mix and match the parts to make custom PKSs that work.
        
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