Issues

Making protons tag along with electrons: For efficient electron transfer in proteins, it is very important that protons can move along with electrons. In this issue, Guberman-Pfeffer and Malvankar (pp. 4093–4097) discuss strategies for proton-coupled electron transfer in bacterial proteins building on their work using crystalline amyloid proteins (green) that can perform proton-coupled electron transport over micrometre distances via stacked tyrosine residues. Intrinsic (contact-free) electron transfer was measured by placing amyloid protein crystal between gold electrodes shown at the sides. Image credit: Catharine Shipps.