What type of interaction would you expect between the side chains of each of the following pairs of amino acids in the tertiary structure of a protein?
b. leucine and isoleucine

Question

What type of interaction would you expect between the side chains of each of the following pairs of amino acids in the tertiary structure of a protein?

b. leucine and isoleucine

Accepted Answer

All right. Hello everyone. So this question is asking us what kind of interaction would occur between the side chains of arginine and Aspar tape aspartate. For your information is otherwise known as aspartic acid. But moving on to the actual text of the question, notice how this question is asking us about interaction between side chains of amino acids. And recall first and foremost that this is characteristic of the tertiary structure of a protein. So once again, just to reiterate here, the tertiary structure of a protein describes the different interactions between amino acid side chains that contribute to the three dimensional structure of that protein or of that polypeptide. And so because amino acids can be characterized in different ways depending on their polarity, for example, different interactions are possible. So let's name a few right? We have hydrophobic interactions, we have polar bonds, hydrogen bonds, ionic bonds, and disulfide bonds. So first, it's important to recognize the specific properties of the amino acids that we're dealing with. So first and foremost, we can eliminate hydrophobic interactions because arginine and aspartate are not nonpolar. In fact, they are polar amino acids. So to be a bit more precise here we call it arginine is an example of a basic amino acid. Whereas aspartate is an example of an acidic amino acid. A spar date otherwise known as aspartic acid by the way. But what does this mean? Right, naturally, these two amino acids are polar. But what type of interaction is possible between them? Well, because arginine is a basic amino acid, the side chain of it is going to have a positive charge. On the other hand, a spar eight is going to have a negatively charged side chain. This is because of these two amino acids, either donating or accepting a proton. So here we can see very clearly that an ionic interaction is possible, right? Because one group has a positive charge and the other has a negative charge and these opposite charges will gravitate towards each other. So here this is most definitely going to be an ionic bond and there you have it. So with that being said, thank you so very much for watching and I hope you found this helpful.

What type of interaction would you expect between the side chains of each of the following pairs of amino acids in the tertiary structure of a protein?
b. leucine and isoleucine

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Amino Acid Side Chains

Hydrophobic Interactions

Protein Tertiary Structure

What type of interaction would you expect between the side chains of each of the following pairs of amino acids in the tertiary structure of a protein?b. leucine and isoleucine

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Amino Acid Side Chains

Hydrophobic Interactions

Protein Tertiary Structure

What type of interaction would you expect between the side chains of each of the following pairs of amino acids in the tertiary structure of a protein?
b. leucine and isoleucine