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Essentials of biorecognition: the (strept)avidin-biotin system as a model for protein-protein and protein-ligand
Meir Wilchek1, Edward A Bayer, Oded Livnah
1Department of Biological Chemistry, The Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel. meir.wilchek@weizmann.ac.il
Abstract:
Molecular recognition or biorecognition is as the heart of all biological interactions. These interactions are characterized by a collection of noncovalent bonds, namely ionic, hydrogen-bonding and hydrophobic interactions. In addition, shape complementarity appears to play a pivotal role in the process of biorecognition. In this review, we examine the versatile avidin-biotin complex as a model system for study of the biorecognition phenomenon with respect to protein-protein, protein-peptide, protein-ligand and protein-DNA interactions.
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