Hemoglobin poster added to F1000 poster collection

The 2008 "Haemoglobin Revisited" poster presented at WATOC 08 has been accepted into the Faculty of 1000 Poster Collection and can be accessed by clicking on the heading of this post. It is slightly modified from the original by inclusion of the instructions for generating the structures and by crossing out the claim that the crystal structure cannot account for the inability to form crosslinks between the N-terminals of the beta chains. The crystal structure can account for this phenomenon if it is also assumed that the N-terminals are not very mobile. On the other hand, the native structure of the T-state proposed in the poster (click on the Gallery link) can account for the crosslinking properties only if the lysine side chains are considered mobile.
In summary, the crosslinking study cannot distinguish between these opposing views of protein structure.

Dihydrodipicolinate Synthase (DHDPS)

The structure of this enzyme from Bacillus anthracis is now available in the Gallery. It is the first alpha/beta barrel native quaternary structure to be reassembled. Using this structure as a template should help in the reassembly of other alpha/beta barrel structures. There is a ragged edge on the z-axis of this structure that corresponds to an area of inter-subunit contact in the crystal. Probably this is an example of damage to the tertiary structure caused by crystallization.