Side view of the hexadecameric thermosome complex.
Proteins require a defined three-dimensional structure to fulfill central tasks in living organisms.
The three-dimensional structure is coded in the sequence of the building blocks, the amino acid. However, in the cellular environment proteins have to adopt their structure in a very short time after synthesis in the presence of a large number of other cellular components that could interfere with this process. Therefore a class of proteins, the chaperones, has evolved that rescues the folding intermediates from aggregation. A special kind of chaperones are double-ring, oligomeric containers, termed chaperonins. They provide closed compartments that shield folding proteins from the cellular environment.