Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A subdivision of a larger unit.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any subdivision of a larger unit
  • noun biochemistry A protein subunit

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a monetary unit that is valued at a fraction (usually one hundredth) of the basic monetary unit

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sub- +‎ unit

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Examples

  • Since the gamma subunit is asymmetrical it compels the beta subunits to undergo structural changes.

    Press Release: The 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1997

  • The gamma subunit is placed as an asymmetrical axle in the cylinder formed by the three alpha and the three beta subunits and has unique contacts with the beta units and forces their active surfaces to assume different three-dimensional structures.

    Press Release: The 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1997

  • Some seconds later the GTP, bound to the alpha-subunit, is hydrolysed to GDP.

    Signal Transduction 1994

  • The alpha and beta subunits in the F1 part, however, cannot rotate because they are locked in a fixed position by the b subunit, which is anchored to subunit a in the membrane.

    The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1997 1997

  • The alpha subunit, which is the largest, can bind GTP.

    Physiology or Medicine 1994 - Press Release 1994

  • Interestingly, most of the ribosomal proteins found in our study belong to the small, 40S ribosomal subunit, which is known to associate with another multiprotein factor that we have identified, the cap-binding complex eIF4F

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Vincent Gache et al. 2010

  • HIFs are heterodimeric transcription factors, meaning that they consist of two subunits: an oxygen-sensitive α − subunit, which is the fundamental to the EPO mechanism, and a β − subunit.

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • HIFs are heterodimeric transcription factors, meaning that they consist of two subunits: an oxygen-sensitive α − subunit, which is the fundamental to the EPO mechanism, and a β − subunit.

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • The core enzyme consists of a 65 kDa scaffolding protein known as A subunit tethering a 36 kDa catalytic C subunit

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles He-Ge Chen et al. 2009

  • We identified a hinge region, referred to as the subunit rotation motif (SRM), is responsible for transition between different RadA polymers.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Yu-Wei Chang et al. 2009

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