In my biochem class today we were discussing the folding of proteins and how whatever structure they are in affects the function that they perform. One protein can change it’s structural conformation based off so many different factors. They can change because of their environment, because of signals they receive, and because of other proteins that they interact with. It is incredible to think how little we actually know about the world around us. We might be able to identify all of the proteins in one species but we are not able to identify the function of a vast majority of them. These proteins that we are trying to understand are also always change shape and function so that further complicates making a catalog of all proteins. On top of that we aren’t even able to identify all living species on Earth, we just have an estimate and may never know how many organisms actually inhabit our planet. With all of these unidentified species lay many unidentified proteins. I don’t think it will be anytime soon that someone devises a way to identify every protein within an organism is a relatively quick fashion. Additionally finding the function of the identified proteins will take exponentially longer. So much of science is just guess and check and concrete answers can take forever to find if they are able to be found at all.
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