Protein structure and function

October 11th&13th, 2004
(Shanghai Institutes of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

October 15th, 2004
(Tsinghua University)

Mingjie Zhang
Department of Biochemistry
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: 852-2358-8709 Fax: 852-2358-1552
email: mzhang@ust.hk http://bcz102.ust.hk

The first part of the lecture will cover basic aspects of protein structure. I will use
various examples to illustrate different levels of protein structure organization (amino
acid sequence, secondary structure, common motifs, protein domains, domain
organization, and higher order protein structures). The biological significances of atomic
structures of proteins will be discussed throughout the lecture. The lecture will also
discuss the importance of structural information in aiding experimental design.
[Reading material: Richardson, J.S. "The anatomy and taxonomy of protein structure"
(1981) Advances in Protein Chemistry vol. 34, 167-339. The article is a bit old, but it is
an excellent review for understanding protein structures.]

The second part will use calmodulin as an example to illustrate how structural
biology has helped in understanding calcium signaling. The lecture will provide
biochemical and structural basis of calmodulin as a versatile calcium signal trigger.
Several examples will be used to illustrate various modes of calmodulin-mediated
enzyme activation.

The discussion part will use the recent elucidation of the crystal structures of
potassium channel to discuss the power of structural biology in understanding
challenging questions in modern biology. The structures of potassium channel provide
molecular basis for the exquisite selectivity and gating property of many transmembrane
ion channels.
[reading materials: k_channel.pdf (original article)]