Some proteins (in their folded form) are classified as being knotted.
The function of the knotting is mysterious since knotting seemingly
would make the folding process unnecessarily complicated. To
function, proteins need to fold quickly and reproducibly, and
misfolding can have catastrophic results. For example, Mad Cow
disease and the human analog, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, come from
misfolded proteins.
Traditionally, knotting is only defined for closed curves, where the
topology is trapped in the loop. However, proteins have free ends, as
well as most of the objects that humans consider as being knotted
(like shoelaces and strings of lights). Defining knotting in open
curves is tricky and ambiguous. We consider some definitions of
knotting in open curves and see how one of these definitions is used
to characterize the knotting in proteins.
Further Information
Eric Rawdon is a Professor in Mathematics & Data Analytics at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota.
Research interests
Physical knot theory
Publications
Please see google scholar