eli5 How does just folding a protein a different way make it do a completely different thing?
In: 7
Because the folding gives you the shape, which gives you the function.
If you crumple a piece of paper into a little ball, you can roll it across the table. If you fold an identical piece of paper into a paper airplane, it can fly – but can’t roll at all. If you roll another identical piece of paper into a tube, it can roll really well in one direction but not at all in the other direction…
See what I mean? They’re all the same paper, but how you fold/manipulate it determines what the resulting object can do.
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