Is [alpha]-Keratin a Coiled Coil?
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd. 1952. First Edition. lxiv, 1132 pages. 8vo. Bound volume contains the issues for July-December 1952, Volume 170 of Nature, bound cleanly in red cloth. Ex-library (Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital, properly withdrawn). Trimmed tightly when bound, but not affecting text. Occasional library stamps, library bookplate on front pastedown. Very Good. Cloth. [25783]
Contains the article "Is [alpha]-Keratin a Coiled Coil?" found on pages 882-883. Profiles in Science at the National Institute of Health website has a great summary of this article's significance:
"During the 1950s Crick made important contributions not only to the study of DNA and the genetic code, but to X-ray protein structure analysis. Establishing the three-dimensional molecular structure of various proteins from X-ray diffraction patterns was a major goal, and a major challenge, for X-ray crystallographers and protein chemists at the time. Crick was instrumental in extending helical diffraction theory to construct such three-dimensional maps of protein molecules from X-ray data. In this paper, he proposes a brilliant simplification by which alpha keratin, the prototypical fibrous protein of which nails and hair are made, could be shown to consist of two Pauling-Corey alpha helixes, slightly deformed and coiling around one another, with the amino acid protrusions from one helix fitting into corresponding holes in the other. The bending, or deformation, in the axis of each alpha helix meant that it was twisted into a higher-order, larger helix. Crick went on to calculate the complicated X-ray diffraction pattern such a super helix, or coiled coil, would produce."
Price: $250.00