Proteins, in reality mere complex molecules, were once dreamed by Scrooge McDuck to be a microscopic sapient species in their own right.
Description[]
In a dream Scrooge McDuck experienced in 1983, he and his nephews used a Shrinking Machine to explore the cells of an oak tree leaf — where they discovered a fully-fledged civilisation of sentient Chloroplasts. In that dream-world, he was introduced to the Proteins as being among the also-sentient “building blocks of the cell”, who usually resided in lakes in “storage cells” alongside Acids and Sugars so as to be available in a time of sunlight-starvation. Known as the “gentlest and sweetest” beings in the leaves, Proteins appeared as female and attractive, temporarily catching the fancy of Donald within the dream until Huey, Dewey and Louie reminded him about Daisy.
Behind the scenes[]
The Proteins first appeared in the 1983 comic story Plantastic Voyage.