Ancient Greek tholos-like architecture composed of archaeal proteins

Collaborative research groups discovered a unique supramolecular structure composed of hyperthermophilic archaeal proteins. Their integrative biophysical data show that the two functionally unannotated archaeal proteins are co-assembled into an ancient Greek tholos-like architecture having a central cavity, which can potentially accommodate other proteins. Their findings not only provide insight into the molecular evolution between archaeal and eukaryotic proteins but also offer a new framework for designing functional protein cages that are stable in high temperatures.