BIOL 301 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Isoelectric Focusing, Isoelectric Point, Asymmetric Carbon
Document Summary
Proteins are polymers of amino acids, with each amino acid residue joined to its neighbor by a specific type of covalent bond. Proteins can be broken down (hydrolyzed) to their constituent amino acids. Earliest studies of proteins focused on free amino acids derived from them. 20 diff amino acids commonly found in proteins. Carboxyl group and amino group bonded to same carbon atom, alpha carbon. Differ from each other in their side chains, r groups. Vary in structure, size, electric charge, affecting solubility. Tetrahedral arrangement of bonding orbitals can carry 2 unique spatial arrangements. All molecules with chiral center are also optically active- they rotate plane-polarized light. Special nomenclature developed to specify absolute configuration of 4 substituents of asymmetric carbon atoms. Another system of specifying configuration around a chiral center is the. Rs system which describes more precisely the configuration of molecules with more than one chiral center. The amino acid residues in proteins are l stereoisomers.
