Hi,
I'd like to thank everyone who sent me leads to the question that I asked
about the periodicity of sequence lengths in protein databases. We found
the paper we were looking for, but unfortunately it turned out not to be
as interesting as we had hoped. For those interested the reference is
M.A.Savageau PNAS (1986), 1198-1202, vol 88.
Proteins of E.coli come in sizes that are multiples of 14 kDa: Domain
concepts and evolutionary implications.
The paper looked at about 1000 E.coli proteins and found that 46% have
molecular masses of n x 14000 +/- 2500 where n=1,2...
The author suggests that this indicates that this indicates a fundamental
structural unit and that little sequence homology is seen in the units of
similar size. Interesting enough but not what we were after.
If any one knows of more recent papers in a similar vein I would still be
interested in hearing about them.
Once again Thanks,
Mark Cohen
