One amino acid does not a protein make—let alone a being. ~ Preston Cloud
HELLO and welcome to my blog about protein isolation and the various techniques that are used in biology!
Proteins are pretty amazing, because a majority of biological material are made up of them.
Proteins are polymers of amino acids.
many groups of amino acids = a protein
When you join many amino acids together, it makes up an entity called a "protein."
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| http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Protein-structure.png |
Amino acids have a nitrogen-carbon-carbon backbone.
A hydrogen and an R group (R stands for any sidechain) bind to the center carbon.
Due to the variability in the sidechain, the property (i.e. the charge) of the amino acid can change to be either positive, negative, or neutral.
Therefore, the structure and function of the protein can change as a result of the properties of the amino acids.
Proteins are everywhere!
Proteins can function as:
1. enzymes
2. hormones
3. transport proteins (transporters or protein channels in the cell membrane)
4. antibodies
5. structural proteins (collage, elastin, keratin, etc.)
6. motor proteins
7. receptors
8. signalling proteins
*Protein Crystallography. Proteins, Proteins. http://www.proteincrystallography.org/protein/ (accessed date 3/18/2011).
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