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The proteins upon which life depends share an attribute with paper airplanes: Unless folded properly, they just won't fly. But researchers have been puzzled by how the long, linear proteins cranked out by the ribosome factories in a cell are folded into the shapes they must assume to perform their function.
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The research, published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, says a protein called shugoshin holds the answer. Also known as SGO1, this protein fits precisely into a sort of keyhole which gives the chromosome its X shape
Chromosomes are long DNA molecules that contain the genetic material of an organism but their shape has always remained a mystery.
They believe a protein called SGO1 may play a role.