Molecular playground

I was searching for images of molecular look alikes. The one taught in my biochemistry course, is this:


Image taken from Biomolecular Machines Laboratory

Both of these molecules are found during translation stage of protein synthesis at the ribosome. On the left is a protein-amino acid-tRNA complex. The protein that attaches at the top of tRNA is what I called a molecular usher that accompany a tRNA with an amino acid to the ribosome. On the right is a pure protein that looks like the complex on the left. The similarities are striking!

There's a journal article on macromolecular mimicry if you have a science background.

I stumbled upon 3dchem while searching for a hemoglobin model. It features a molecular viewer and I got hooked! I played around with the molecule and created this:



I created a ribbon diagram with heme groups shown in stick diagram. Here I emphasise the heme groups in the hemoglobin molecule.

Playing around with stuff you learn makes learning more fun!

Technorati tags: biochemistry, molecular biology, Elongation Factor Tu, Elongation Factor G, EF-Tu, EF-G, tRNA, Hemoglobin