Amino Acids - the building blocks of Protein
- All have the same fundamental structure
- Central Carbon Atom bonded to an amino group (-NH2) to a carboxyl group (-COOH) and to a hydrogen atom
- In every amino acid there is also another atom or group of atoms designated by (-R)
- A large variety is possible, but only twenty different kinds are used to build proteins.
- The only difference in proteins is their (-R) group.
- Example of condensation: Amino "head" of one amino acid can be linked to the carboxyl tail of another by removal of a molecule of water (Peptide bond).
- forms dipeptide or polypeptide
- sequence of amino acids in polypeptide chain determines the characters of the protein molecule.
R R
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H-N-C-C-OH H-N-C-C-OH
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H H O H H O
H
2O is extracted from the molecules in the middle and a single bond is formed. A peptide bond is a covalent bond formed by condensation.
R R
| |
H-N-C-C-N-C-C-OH
| | ||| | ||
H H O H H O
I wish there were a better way to do this, the Hydrogen is single-bonded to the nitrogen and the
Oxygen shares a double bond with the Carbon.