Most abundant protein

[Malcolm Campbell]

Regarding:

>> Well, I've heard that it's lignin, which is some protein that I believe
>> plays a structural role in wood, sort of as collagen does in animals.

>A note of clarification.  Lignin is no more of a protein than cellulose.
>Both are C H O polymers generated from glucose by enzymatic activity.
>Neither contains amino groups.

Point of clarification.  Cellulose is a homopolymer of glucose and is a
CHO (carbohydrate).  Lignin is not a carbohydrate. Lignin is a
heteropolymer (usually) of hydroxycinnamyl alcohols (derived via the
shikimate, phenylpropanoid, and monolignol biosynthetic pathways).  The
route from glucose to lignin is certainly a lot longer(around 30
steps)than the route from glucose to cellulose (not really known, but
likely less than half a dozen).   Neither are proteins but they do rank
number one and number two in terms of abundance of biopolymers.

Most abundant protein?  Actin seems like a good bet.

Hope this has been helpful.

Malcolm

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+ Malcolm M.Campbell                  + malcolm at unity.ncsu.edu      +
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