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Question

What is meant by the secondary structure of proteins?


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Solution

Proteins:

  • They are organic molecules that are composed of long chains of amino acids.
  • Proteins are present in many essential biological compounds such as enzymes.
  • Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds.
  • A polypeptide is a longer/continuous/unbranched peptide chain.

Secondary structure of proteins:

  • The secondary structure of a protein refers to the shape in which a long polypeptide chain can exist.
  • The secondary structures of proteins exist in two forms:
  1. α-Helix
  2. β-sheets

α-Helix:

  • "α-Helix is one of the most common ways in which a polypeptide chain forms all possible hydrogen bonds by twisting into a right-handed screw (helix) with the NH group of each amino acid residue hydrogen-bonded to the C=O of an adjacent turn of the helix.":

β-sheets:

  • “In β-pleated sheet structure, all peptide chains are stretched out to nearly maximum extension and then laid side by side which is held together by intermolecular hydrogen bonds.”

The structure of α-Helix and of β-sheets are shown below.


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