Proteins: A Mosaic Pattern to Rule Them All? (opens in new tab)

For decades, the existence of the hydrophobic core, a region in the 3D structure of proteins where hydrophobic amino acids reside together, has been considered a general property in proteins. What we have found now may extend that model. In particular, the rest of amino acids also seem to cluster together according to their chemical type (polar, acidic, basic, special), specifically in groups of ~8 units. This is what we have come to call the Mosaic Q model. Here is how we found it, along wit...