Function
Many cellular proteins cleave (hydrolyze) nucleoside triphosphates–adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or guanosine triphosphate (GTP)–to their diphosphate forms (ADP and GDP) as a source of energy and to drive conformational changes. These changes in turn affect the structural, enzymatic, or signalling properties of the protein.
Nucleotide exchange factors actively assist in the exchange of depleted nucleoside diphosphates for fresh nucleoside triphosphates. NEFs are specific for the nucleotides they exchange (ADP or GDP, but not both) and are often specific to a single protein or class of proteins with which they interact.
Read more about this topic: Nucleotide Exchange Factor
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“If the children and youth of a nation are afforded opportunity to develop their capacities to the fullest, if they are given the knowledge to understand the world and the wisdom to change it, then the prospects for the future are bright. In contrast, a society which neglects its children, however well it may function in other respects, risks eventual disorganization and demise.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)
“Uses are always much broader than functions, and usually far less contentious. The word function carries overtones of purpose and propriety, of concern with why something was developed rather than with how it has actually been found useful. The function of automobiles is to transport people and objects, but they are used for a variety of other purposes—as homes, offices, bedrooms, henhouses, jetties, breakwaters, even offensive weapons.”
—Frank Smith (b. 1928)
“The function of comedy is to dispel ... unconsciousness by turning the searchlight of the keenest moral and intellectual analysis right on to it.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)