Alpha Helical Coiled-Coil Structure
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The alpha-helical coiled-coil was described by Francis Crick in 1953( Acta
Cryst 6,689-697). Like the discovery of the DNA double-helix, it was based
on sifting the crucial experimental facts and using knowledge of sterochemistry
to find a model to fit them. The model was validated at atomic resolution
only in 1991 with the structure of the Leucine Zipper in the GCN4 transcriptional
activator ( O'Shea et al. Science 254, 539). Coiled-coils are found in
many proteins, including alpha-keratins, muscle proteins, bacterial surface
proteins, intermediate filaments, dynein and other cytoskeletal proteins.
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