MBG 2040 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Transferase, 23S Ribosomal Rna, Tandemly Arrayed Genes
19 Nov 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins as nucleotides are for nucleic acids. A polypeptide is a long chain of amino acid residues comprising 20 different kinds of amino acids. Amino acids have three parts: a free amino group, a free carboxyl group and a side group designated as r. Amino acids can be hydrophobic if they have non-polar side groups such as glycine, alanine, valine, leucine etc. Amino acids can also be hydrophilic if they have polar side groups such as serine, threonine, tyrosine, asparagine, glutamine and cysteine. The amino acids with acidic side chains are: aspartic acid and glutamic acid. The amino acids with basic side groups are: lysine, arginine and histidine. Amino acid residues are joined by peptide bonds. The carboxyl group of one amino acid is covalently linked to the amino group of the next amino acid. By convention, a polypeptide chain goes from the n (amino group) to the c (carboxyl) terminus.
