title: Specialized biology from tandem beta-turns.
abstract: Diverse forms of pathologies can be derived from the lack of flexibility in tissues and the absence of required concentrations of certain types of proteins (e.g., amelogenesis imperfecta). beta-spirals using canonical proline-nucleated beta-turns in diverse proteins allow for vital functions including structural (mucin and amelogenin), respiratory (elastin), muscular (titin), and that of genetic expression (RNA polymerase II). These confer particular physical and chemical properties to proteins and therefore to the tissues in which they are found, while the pervasive presence of tandem repeats in the genome sequence indicates their importance. This paper discusses the general biomedical relevance of this structure, focusing on several proteins found in humans.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisioquímica, Instituto de Química, Mexico City, Mexico. lagunez@servidor.unam.mx
authors.forename: Jaime
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lagúnez-Otero
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Díaz-Villaseñor
authors.forename: Venkatesan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Renugopalakrishnan
mesh_terms: D011487:Protein Conformation; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins