Spring 2001 -- Vol. 18, No. 1

Photo Features

Stereo views of yeast TFIIA determined by X-ray crystallography. TFIIA is a protein molecule that regulates gene expression in organisms as diverse as baker’s yeast, fruit flies and mammals. The figures show the side and top views of the TFIIA complex, which is made up of three separate polypeptides (in pink, green and blue).

The crystal structure was solved by Song Tan of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology when he was a project leader in Tim Richmond’s laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. The structure, of which only the TFIIA portion is shown, explained how TFIIA binds to both TBP, another transcription factory, and DNA, and also suggested how TFIIA might interact with other gene regulatory molecules.

Scientists use stereo views, two identical pictures of a structure with one rotated three to six degrees, to get a three-dimensional sense of something.

By looking closely at the two like views, your eyes eventually pull the images together into one combined, seemingly 3-D view.

With current technology, such 3-D effects—which help scientists such as professor Tan conceptualize the small proteins they study—can also be achieved on a computer. For example, Tan’s Web site boasts a library of such movies at <http://www.bmb.psu.edu/tan/tanlab_website/tanlab_homepage.html>

Back to Science Journal Spring 2001 Index

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