Summary of My AMAZING AWESOME POSSUM PROTEIN!!!

Calmodulin has been named "the best studied and prototypical example of the E-F-hand family of [calcium]-sensing proteins" (D. Chin, A. R. Means). The E-F hand refers to a helix-loop-helix motif that is found in many other calcium-binding proteins. Basically, if you pretend that your right hand is a shot gun and point it up into the air, and then imagine that a bullet of calcium is lodged in the little hole made by your last three fingers (that are curled up), you have a picture of the E-F hand of calmodulin! And by the way, it's pretty tough to disarm calmodulin considering it has FOUR of these shotguns (E-F hands)! That's right, this protein truly is drop-dead gorgeous.

But calmodulin has more than just dangerously good looks. When its barrels are loaded with calcium, it has the power to scare not just one, but MULTIPLE kinases into doing whatever it wants (namely, regulating the activities of target enzymes).  For example, calmodulin has the power to activate phosphorylase b kinase; this action eventually leads to glycogen breakdown. It has also been shown that, when Fas (a receptor with a "death domain") binds to calmodulin, the dynamic duo regulates apoptosis (programmed cell death) in osteoclasts!

So calmodulin is like an assassin in your system- it has lots of power over a variety of important regulators. This is one protein you don't want to mess around with...

Works Cited:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10884684

http://www.jbc.org/content/280/33/29964.abstract?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexacttitle=and&titleabstract=calmodulin+osteoclasts&andorexacttitleabs=and&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

http://www.jbc.org/content/272/42/26202.abstract?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexacttitle=and&titleabstract=calmodulin+phosphorylase+b+kinase&andorexacttitleabs=and&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

Nelson, David L., and Michael M. Cox. Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. 5th ed. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 2008. 437-603. Print.