Welcome to another new day for Biology Tips Daily, offering tips and tricks to help you ease into the biology mastery.
Would you like to learn and understand protein structures? Let's see we can explain it all in one tip ...
You have to understand a lot of chemistry to understand protein structure. Many biology students either don't remember their chemistry or have never studied chemistry and that adds up to confusion.
Still proteins are awfully important. Different kinds of proteins have different kinds of functions in the cell. They are part of the structure of cells. They transport other molecules. They act like messengers. They regulate gene expression. They defend your body, attacking invaders like bacteria and viruses. The list goes on and on. Proteins are the work horses of the cell.
The structure of a protein is related to its function. Each of the 10's of thousands of different kinds of proteins in your cells has a different 3-dimensional structure that allows it to do its job. Scientists, needless to say, are extremely interested in understanding how proteins do what they do. So they need to understand the 3-dimensional structure of proteins.
Happily, you do not have to know the structure of 10's of thousands of different kinds of proteins. There is an overall structure they all share. That's what makes them proteins, not carbohydrates!
Proteins are large molecules made up of smaller units stuck together. The smaller units are called amino acids and there are 20 of them. All twenty are identical except for their "R" groups. This little picture shows you where the R group is located in each amino acid. R groups are groups of atoms. All you have to remember is that there are twenty different R groups giving each of the 20 amino acids its identity. Stick amino acids together and you get a protein.
Let's say you stuck a bunch of amino acids together. The sequence of the amino acids in that protein is called the primary structure. Obviously, all proteins have a primary structure, defined by the sequence of their amino acids. One down, three more parts to go.
The secondary structure depends on local interactions between amino acids that cause the molecules to begin to fold into a 3-dimensional shape.
The important thing to remember about the secondary structure is that it does not involve the R groups of the amino acids, discussed above. The local folding of the protein takes the form of a helix or a pleated sheet (see picture on the left). Kind of interesting, don't you think?
There is another aspect to the shape of a protein caused by chemical interactions between the R groups of the amino acids. This is called the tertiary structure.
This is where it gets really interesting. All kinds of chemical interactions between R groups of the amino acids from all over the protein really fold the protein up into complex and oddly convoluted shapes. Take a look at the picture on the left. That's a complicated shape compared to a circle, square, or triangle.
Finally, some proteins are made from 2 or more separate chains of amino acids. Each chain has its own primary, secondary, and tertiary structure. But the chains also interact with one another, making a quaternary structure.
This protein is composed of four chains. The interactions between the chains fold the protein into an even more complex 3-dimensional quaternary structure.
That's protein structure in a nutshell. All you have to remember is amino acids, primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary. Not so confusing after all, is it?
OK, it is a bit longer than a minute, but we tried.
Until then, stay tuned for more biology tips.
Seize the Day!
Dr. Wayne Huang
"The Rapid Learning Coach"
BioTips@RapidLearningCener.com
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