Quasi-Equivalence: Motion and Adaptability in Living Molecules Conference being held second week of January 1997 in Tallahassee, Florida

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9631049 Makowski This grant requests funding for a conference to explore the principles underlying our understanding of the structure and activity of macromolecular assemblies. The conference will take place in the second week of January, 1997, in Tallahassee, Florida. There will be two full days of scientific sessions with talks from approximately 25 speakers. We expect an attendance of 100-150 scientists. In 1962, Caspar and Klug introduced the concept of quasi-equivalence to explain the arrangement of proteins on the surface of icosahedral virus particles. The concept has played an important part in shaping our study and understanding of viruses and other macromolecular assemblies for the past 30 years. In those 30 years the amount of information that we have obtained about proteins has exploded, and the original concept, based on electron microscope studies, has been refined to take into account the remarkable results on the structure of crystalline viruses and other protein-protein interactions. Nevertheless, it survives as a philosophical basis for much of how we think about macromolecular assemblies. By organizing this conference, we seek to bring together the individuals who were involved in the development of the concept from its origins, and those who have generated high resolution information about macromolecular assemblies and viruses over the past 30 years. Most of the principal speakers have already agreed t participate in this conference. This may be one of the last chances we have to bring together the originators of the concepts with so many scientists who have contributed to its development. It is an opportunity to summarize the principles underlying our understanding of macromolecular assemblies, and to define the questions we need to continue asking about the movement and adaptability of macromolecules. %%%