In addition, the three-dimensional structure of a
protein can yield direct insight into its molecular
mechanism. For example, the structure of the TATAbox-
binding protein (TBP) when it is bound to DNA
provides not only a sense of how these molecules interact
in general, but also some fascinating clues about
DNA-binding specificity. Furthermore, structural
understanding of recognition mechanisms in major
histocompatibility complex molecules and T-cell receptors
helped to make immunology comprehensible at a
molecular level13,14. Structural genomics efforts plan to
extend structural insight to a broad repertoire of proteins,
using large-scale high-throughput techniques15–26.