Abstract
IN an interesting paper which appeared recently in Nature, Goldacre and Lorch1 put forward the hypothesis that folding and unfolding of protein chains plays a decisive part in amœboid movement and cytoplasmic streaming. The same hypothesis was put forward more than twenty years ago by us in connexion with a new theory of muscular contraction2. This theory said that the contraction is due to a folding of unfolded protein chains under the influence of chemical reactions, and as one of the possibilities a variation of pH was considered; this was illustrated in 1929 by the accompanying diagram.
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References
Goldacre, R. J., and Lorch, I. J., Nature, 168, 497 (1950).
Meyer, K. H., Biochem. Z., 214, 253 (1929).
Meyer, K. H., and Mark, H., “Der Aufbau der hochpolymeren organischen Naturstoffe auf Grand molekular-morphologischer Betrachtungen”, 232, 243 (Leipzig, 1930).
Meyer, K. H., and Mark, H., Ber. dtsch. chem. Ges., 61, 1932 (1928).
Svedberg, T., and Fåhraeus, R., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 48, 430 (1926). Svedberg, T., and Nichols, J. B., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 48, 3081 (1926).
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MEYER, K., MARK, H. Biological Significance of Folding and Unfolding of Protein Molecules. Nature 167, 736 (1951). https://doi.org/10.1038/167736a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/167736a0
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