Crystalline

Crystallines are a group of water-soluble proteins that give the lens of the eye its refractive power and transparency and also absorb UV light in the cornea .

properties

For absorbing a high concentration is necessary because of the comparatively bulky quaternary structure not inclusion leads, by light scattering , a clouding of the lens would result.

Crystallines come in variants that are named with Greek letters according to the sequence of elution in gel permeation chromatography . Crystallines can be found in the vertebrate eye , but also outside the trunk of the chordates , for example in cephalopods such as the octopus .

Web links

• UCSF : Integrated Analysis of Molecular Assemblies using Chimera - A Demonstration with Alpha Crystallin . Structure of the alpha crystalline compared to a chaperone .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ James V. Jester: Corneal Crystallins and the Development of Cellular Transparency . Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology 19, 2008, doi: 10.1016 / j.semcdb.2007.09.015 , PMC 2275913 (free full text).