What enzymes are

Usage examples of proteins.

In addition, pharmacologists can use pure proteins to help them find new drugs.

Crick, and Wilkins, showed that each giant DNA molecule is a string of millions of base pairs, organized into hundreds of thousands of genes, that encode all the proteins that a cell can manufacture.

At any moment in a given cell, thousands of ribosomes are churning out proteins, thousands of sections of DNA are separating and rejoining, and thousands of used proteins are being broken down into their component amino acids, which will quickly be reused to build other proteins.

Nevertheless, by comparing our own DNA and the proteins encoded therein with those of other organisms which have undergone different transformations as those organisms evolved, we may discern our relationships to those organisms and, ultimately, discover our own evolution and our place in the scheme of nature.

By comparing this hypothetical protein with known proteins, the researchers take a guess at what the underlying gene sequence does and how it might be useful in developing a drug, say, or a diagnostic test.

The payoff from the reference work will come from understanding the proteins encoded by the genes.

Human Genome Project seeks not just to elucidate all the proteins produced within a human but also to comprehend how the genes that encode the proteins are expressed, how the DNA sequences of those genes stack up against comparable genes of other species, how genes vary within our species and how DNA sequences translate into observable characteristics.

Will the three-dimensional structures of proteins be predictable from their amino acid sequences?

Many different amino acid sequences can lead to proteins of similar shapes, so we can infer the structures of various proteins by studying a representative subset of proteins in detail.

The consortium intends to get the most information out of each new structure by using existing knowledge about related structures to group proteins into families that are most likely to share the same architectural features.

Each chromosome consists of a DNA double helix that is wrapped around spoollike proteins called histones.

Human Genome Project is to understand the proteins that are encoded by the DNA.

With that information in hand, it would be possible to develop new diagnostic tests for various illnesses and new drugs to alter the activity of affected proteins or genes.

Investigators might also be able to use some of the proteins and genes we identified as therapeutic agents in their own right.

Researchers can then make the human proteins specified by those genes.