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Question

Write a brief paragraph about amino acids' optical activity.


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Solution

Biomolecules:

  • The organic molecules which are produced in or by living organisms are termed as biomolecules.
  • Except for glycine, all amino acids have their - carbon bound to one of four groups: carboxyl, amino, R-, and a hydrogen atom.
  • As a result, the amino acid's -carbon atom becomes a chiral center, and the molecule becomes optically active.
  • The four separate groups can occupy two distinct spatial arrangements due to the tetrahedral layout of the bonding orbitals around the -carbon atom.
  • Stereoisomers are molecules that have different unique spatial configurations.
  • The two stereoisomers are enantiomers because their structures are non-superimposable mirror images of one another.
  • Both rotate plane-polarized light in opposite directions, right or left, and are labelled D (+) or L (-).

D and L system of amino acids:

  • L stereoisomers are found only in amino acid residues in protein molecules.
  • Mostly short peptides have been found to include D-amino acid residues, such as some peptides found in bacterial cell walls and some peptide antibiotics.
  • The D, L system, which is related to the configuration of D and L glyceraldehyde, specifies the absolute configurations of simple sugars and amino acids. As a result, L-alanine has a similar structure to L-glyceraldehyde.

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