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CHAINMAIL AND CEMENT. "In HK97 itself, the intersubunit contacts are reinforced by a post-assembly covalent linkage—an isopeptide bond between adjacent gp5 subunits, so positioned that the entire capsid is topologically interlinked in a ‘chainmail’ arrangement. In other cases, such as bacteriophage λ, the non-covalent interactions between the subunits are reinforced by an additional ‘cement’ protein, which binds on the outer surface of the capsid at positions close to those of the isopeptide bonds in HK97." https://elifesciences.org/content/2/e01299 View in LinkedIn

MOST ABUNDANT ON EARTH. "Viruses, in particular the tailed bacteriophages (Caudovirales), are by far the most abundant biological entities in the biosphere. Phages outnumber bacteria by a factor of ten with an estimated 10(31) virus particles on Earth." https://lnkd.in/dXvJFtt View in LinkedIn

FEW STRUCTURAL CLASSES. “Capsid proteins of non-enveloped viruses fall, so far, into three major structural classes: the β-jellyroll, the HK97 fold, and the fold of dsRNA-virus shell proteins. The RNA bacteriophage MS2 subunits have a fourth structure, not yet found in eukaryotic viruses. The HK97 fold is present not only in a large number of dsDNA bacteriophage capsids, including the T-phages, lambdoid phages, etc, but also in the major capsid protein of eukaryotic herpesviruses." (dsDNA = double stranded DNA). https://lnkd.in/dzrNZSY View in LinkedIn

“BACTERIOPHAGES or phages are the most abundant organisms in the biosphere and they are a ubiquitous feature of prokaryotic existence. A bacteriophage is a virus which infects a bacterium.” https://lnkd.in/dpr-Qhn View in LinkedIn

MULTIPLE FORMATS. "Auxiliary proteins or Δ-domains strictly control assembly of multiple, identical, HK97-like subunits into procapsids with specific icosahedral symmetries, rather than aberrant non-icosahedral structures. Some coat proteins built on the ubiquitous HK97-fold also have accessory domains or loops that impart specific functions, such as increased monomer, procapsid, or capsid stability. (There are) numerous HK97-like coat protein structures that are emerging in the literature (over 40 at time of writing)." https://lnkd.in/dBCqqe2 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE contemplates the most common biological structure on this planet, a particular viral fold used widely as a structural template with phenomenal flexibility. The ingenious combination of structural stability with an enormous capacity to accommodate greatly different sized structures, and the ability to add embellishments that give new functions to parts makes this structure a unique Lego building block across biological Kingdoms. View in LinkedIn

“GENES ARE NOT OUR DESTINY. They are a factor in the human story but they do not set us on an inevitable course that cannot be changed. The other factors that modify our genes without changing the actual blueprint are emotions, stress, nutrition and other environmental influences.” https://lnkd.in/dwAmBNZ View in LinkedIn

NEW PERSPECTIVE. "With epigenetics, we are somehow touching the tip of the iceberg of a new, and richer, conceptual framework for biology and genetics, in which the genome appears as “a highly sensitive organ”, a “reactive genome”, or a “developing genome”, subject to time and space, biography and milieu. " https://lnkd.in/dHbHGmK View in LinkedIn

"EPIGENETICS appears to be the return of the repressed of twentieth-century mainstream biological views of heredity." https://lnkd.in/dHbHGmK View in LinkedIn

DOGMA OF UNIDIRECTIONALITY. "The restricted or hard view of inheritance (i.e. impermeable to environmental inputs) that culminated in the central dogma of molecular biology (information can never go back from protein to DNA) acted like a cork that kept many alternative and unconventional views in the bottle of heredity." https://lnkd.in/dHbHGmK View in LinkedIn