Science
Cellular maintenance crew may miss as much as half of certain misfolded proteins
Key Points
As proteins are made in a cell, they are folded into the 3D structure that allows them to work, but sometimes this process can go wrong. When it does, the misfolded proteins lose some or all of their function and usually get tagged by the cell's quality assurance and maintenance crews, which try to repair the proteins or, if they can't, strip them to recycle their parts.
As proteins are made in a cell, they are folded into the 3D structure that allows them to work, but sometimes this process can go wrong. When it does, the misfolded proteins lose some or all of their function and usually get tagged by the cell's quality assurance and maintenance crews, which try to repair the proteins or, if they can't, strip them to recycle their parts.