The cover picture shows the application of symmetry principles to assembling proteins into geometrical cages. In their communication, E. N. G. Marsh et al. explain how they used a small, trimeric, coiled‐coil domain to assemble a trimeric enzyme into a well‐defined tetrahedral cage. This was achieved by genetically fusing the coiled‐coil domain to the C terminus of the enzyme protein through a flexible polyglycine linker sequence—the coiled‐coil acts as a molecular “twist‐tie” to hold the cage together. Other than optimizing the strength of the coiled‐coil interaction and the length of the glycine linker, no further constraints were needed to assemble the desired tetrahedral cage in high yield. This methodology provides a flexible and modular symmetry‐based approach to assembling polyhedral protein cages that can be expanded to use de novo‐designed coiled coils as off‐the‐shelf components for protein assembly. More details can be found in the communication by E. N. G. Marsh et al. on page 1888 in Issue 19, 2017 (DOI: 10.1002/cbic.201700406).

中文翻译：

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前封面：由De Novo设计的盘绕线圈介导的四面体蛋白笼的对称定向自组装（ChemBioChem 19/2017）

封面图片显示对称原理在将蛋白质组装到几何笼子中的应用。在他们的通讯中，E。N. G. Marsh等人。解释他们如何使用小的三聚体卷曲螺旋结构域将三聚体酶组装到定义明确的四面体笼中。这是通过通过柔性聚甘氨酸接头序列将螺旋螺旋结构域与酶蛋白的C末端遗传融合而实现的-螺旋螺旋作为分子“扭曲”将笼子固定在一起。除了优化盘绕线圈相互作用的强度和甘氨酸接头的长度外，不需要其他限制就可以以高产量组装所需的四面体笼。这种方法为组装多面体蛋白笼提供了一种灵活的，基于模块对称性的方法，该方法可以扩展为使用从头设计的卷曲螺旋作为现成的蛋白组装组件。在E.N.G.Marsh等人的来文中可以找到更多细节。上2017年第19期第1888页（DOI：10.1002 / cbic.201700406）。