Original scientific paper

Knotted Structures in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology

Kurt Mislow ; Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton New Jersey 08544, USA
Chengzhi Liang ; Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton New Jersey 08544, USA

Abstract

The term »knot« in the mathematical sense, as a closed curve in 3-space that does not intersect itself but that cannot be embedded in the plane without intersections, has been used to describe a wide variety of molecular structures - except in the protein literature, where it has been used to describe structural motifs that are neither closed knots in the above sense nor even knots in the everyday sense. We argue in this paper that description of these motifs as »knots« constitutes »improper« use of scientific terminology, and we propose a definition of »molecular knot«.
»Ne faites grace à aucune denomination impropre. Ceux qui savent déjà, entendront toujours; ceux qui ne savent pas encore, entendront plutòt«

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

135978

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/135978

Publication date:

2.12.1996.

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