Encapsulin
EM structure of Myxococcus xanthus encpasulin protein (EncA) PDB entry 4pt2 | |||||||||
| Identifiers | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Symbol | Linocin_M18 | ||||||||
| Pfam | PF04454 | ||||||||
| InterPro | IPR007544 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The encapsulins are a family of bacterial proteins that serve as the main structural components of encapsulin nanocompartments. There are several different encapsulin proteins, including EncA, which forms the shell, and EncB, EncC, and EncD, which form the core. They are found in bacteria and archaea. They serve as intracellular structures that compartmentalize specific biochemical reactions. They are highly versatile systems and protect cargo proteins from environmental damage and optimize the efficiency of enzymatic processes.
Encapsulins are used in synthetic biology, microbiology, structural biology, nanotechnology, and biotechnology. They are hard to discover due to their similarity to phage proteins.