Monday, 13 January 2014

The structures of proteins determine Their Functions

Ø The structures of proteins determine Their Functions:
·        Levels of Structure in Proteins:
Biologically active proteins are polymers consisting of amino acids linked by covalent peptide bonds. Many different conformations (three-dimensional structures) are possible for a molecule as large as a protein. Of these many structures, one or, at most. A few have biological activity; these are called the native conformations. Many proteins have no obvious regular repeating structure. As a consequence, these proteins as are frequently described as having large segments of “random structure” (also referred to as random coil). The term random is really a misnomer, since the same nonrepeating structures found in the native conformation of all molecules of a given proteins, and this conformation is needed for its proper function. Because proteins are complex, they are defined in terms of four levels of structure.
v  Primary Structure:-
                                        Primary structure is the order in which the amino acids are covalently linked together, The peptide Leo-Glee-Thru-Val-Argo-Asp-His (recall that the N-terminal amino acids is listed first) has a different primary structure from the peptide Val-His-Asp-Leo-Argo-Thru, even though both have the same number and kinds of amino acids. Note that the order of amino acids can be written on one line. The primary structure is the one-dimensional first step in specifying the three- dimensional structure of protein.
Two three- dimensional aspects of a single Polypeptide chain, called the secondary and tertiary structure, can be considered separately. Secondary structure is the arrangement in space of the atoms in the peptide Backbone. The a-helix and B-pleated sheet arrangements are tow different types of secondary structure. Secondary structures have repetitive interactions resulting from hydrogen bonding between the amide N-H and the carbonyl groups of the peptide backbone. In my proteins, the folding of parts of the chain can occur independently of the folding of other parts. Such independently folded portions of proteins are referred to as domains or super-secondary structure.

v Tertiary Structure:-
                                        Tertiary structure includes the three- dimensional arrangement of all the atoms in the proteins, including those in the side chains and in any prosthetic groups (groups of atoms other than amino acids).
A protein is consisting of multiple polypeptide chains called subunits. The arrangements of subunits respect to one another are the quaternary structure. Interaction between subunits is mediated by monovalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonds, electrostatic attractions, and hydrophobic interactions.
v Quaternary Structure of Proteins:
Each chain is called a subunit. The number of chains can range from tow to more than a dozen, and the chains may be identical of different. Commonly occurring examples are dimmers, timers, and tetramers, consisting of two, three, and four polypeptide chains, respectively. The generic term for such a molecule, made up of a small number of subunits, is oligomer.
o   Hemoglobin:
Hemoglobin is a tetramer, consisting of four polypeptide chains, tow a-chains and tow B-chains (Figure 4.20). The overall structure of hemoglobin is A2B2 in Greek letter notation. Both the a-and B-chains of hemoglobin are very similar to the myoglobin chain. The a-chain is 141 residues long, and the B-chain is 146 residues long; for comparison, the myoglobin chain is 153 residues long. Manu of the amino acids of the a-chain the B-chain and myoglobin are homologous; that is, the same amino acid residues are in the same positions. The heme group is the same in myoglobin and hemoglobin.

o   Myoglobin: An Example of protein structure:-
                                                                                                Myoglobin was the first protein for which the complete tertiary structure was determined by X-ray crystallography. The complete myoglobin consists of a single polypeptide chain of 153 amino acid residues and includes a prosthetic group, the heme group, which also occurs in hemoglobin. The myoglobin molecule (Including a heme group) has a compact structure, with the interior atoms very close to each other. This structure provides examples of many of the force responsible for the three-dimensional shapes of proteins. In myoglobin, three are eight a-helical regions and no B-pleated sheet regions.

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