What is it about?
There are a large number of structures for an important part (fusion peptide) of the HIV gp41 fusion protein. Both the large number and the amount of each structure are important for chronic HIV infection.
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Why is it important?
Despite 40 years of intensive effort, there isn't yet a HIV vaccine. The HIV fusion protein is one of the important targets for a vaccine. The large number of structures discovered for the fusion peptide segment may be important for an effective vaccine. Also, it is very unusual that multiple protein structures are functional.
Perspectives
This is the first example that I know where populations of more than 10 different structures in a sample have been determined by experiment.
David Weliky
Michigan State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Very broad distribution of β sheet registries of the HIV gp41 fusion peptide supports mutational robustness for fusion and infection, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, December 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2402953121.
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