One Response to “Exploring the Cell”

1. Bradford Says:
   February 2nd, 2007 at 1:17 pm

   Their basic finding was that 65% of eukaryotic proteins have multiple domains compared to only 40% for prokaryotes. When the cut-off value for a domain is 100 amino acids, the following breakdown is obtained:

   Eukaryotes: Single-domain (35%), Two-domain (20%), and Three or more domains (45%).

   Prokaryotes: Single-domain (60%), Two-domain (20%), and Three of more domains (20%).

   Previously, we noted that eukaryotic proteins are typically larger than prokaryotic proteins and now we can see why: eukaryotes are just better at making multi-domain proteins. Thus, it is not surprising that they could synthesize the artificial two-domain GFP protein when bacteria could not. But there is more.

   Good stats. This is an interesting way of looking at differences. The protein size differences evoke an inverted pyramid analogy.

Comment by Bradford — February 2, 2007 @ 1:17 pm