Edmund Fischer and Edwin Krebs discovered reversible protein phosphorylation at the University of Washington, showing that a phosphate group donated by ATP carries a positive charge that shifts the arrangement of other charges in a protein, flipping it between active and inactive shapes. This work earned the 1992 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Separately, George Palade discovered the ribosome in 1955 at the Rockefeller Institute, identifying the RNA-rich particles studding the endoplasmic reticulum as the site where proteins are built, work recognized with the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
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The hosts note that the dots visible on the endoplasmic reticulum in textbook diagrams are the ribosomes Palade identified.
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Fischer and Krebs's finding is framed as an example of proteins existing in a metastable state that switches between active and inactive forms.
231 words · auto-generated from the episode video
1:33:14discovery of reversible pro uh protein phosphorilation. >> Yes, this was huge. um Edmund Fiser and Ed Edwin Krebs they discovered at the University of Washington that a protein right it can go from an active state to an inactive state we've talked about this a lot proteins are often in this metastable position where they become active and inactive and how they go from active to inactive is a little ATP or something like that comes along and it donates a phosphate group that phosphate group has a positive charge and that positive charge is going to push around All right. >> All of the other charges in the protein to change its shape. That's what was discovered here. 1992 Nobel Prize in
1:33:56physics in in physiology and medicine. >> 1955 discovery of the ribosome and the uh secrettory pathway. >> Yeah. George Pott, he discovers RNA rich particles that are bound to the endopplasmic reticulum at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. And he proves that these are the structures where proteins are built. Need I say more? The ribosome. >> The thing that most people remember from high school science class is either the mitochondria or the endopplasmic reticulum. >> Yeah. Yeah. But the endopplasmic reticulum has those dots. Those dots are him. The ribosome is where proteins are made. He won the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physiology.