What type of interaction would you expect between the R groups of the following amino acids in a tertiary structure?
c. serine and aspartate

Question

What type of interaction would you expect between the R groups of the following amino acids in a tertiary structure?

c. serine and aspartate

Accepted Answer

All right. Hello everyone. So this question is asking us to identify the type of interaction between the side chains of thine and glutamine in a tertiary structure. Now recall first and foremost that the tertiary structure of a protein refers to interactions of amino acid side chains. These side chains can engage in a variety of different interactions to stabilize the overall three dimensional structure of the polypeptide that forms. Now, these include hydrophobic interactions, salt bridges, disulfide bonds and of course, hydrogen bonds, hydrogen bonds are also characteristic of secondary structure. But here we're focusing on tertiary structure. So for this example, let's focus on the most important elements of the side chains of both thine and glutamine. F for example, has a hydroxy group as part of its side chain making it a polar amino acid. On the other hand, glutamine is also a polar amino acid, but it has an amide functional group specifically a prime of might. No immediately we can in we can eliminate something like a disulfide bond because a disulfide bond is characteristic of two cysteine residues, salt bridges aren't accurate either because of the fact that these amino acids are not ionic, they don't have a charge to them at physiological ph. So we could say for example, that these two amino acids are both hydrophilic, they're both polar and therefore they both engage in hydrophilic interactions. But we can be a little bit more specific than that for the record, these are not going to participate in hydrophobic interactions because they're not hydrophobic, right? So very briefly, let's talk about what a hydrogen bond or h bond actually means, right? And each bond, if you recall is an interaction between the hydrogen of a polar group. In other words, a hydrogen connecting to an electron element and another a separate rather electron element. So just to give an example, right, an interaction between a hydroxy hydrogen and a carbon oxygen is an example of an H bond. We have the hydrogen of a polar group. In this case, the hydroxy group interacting with the electron oxygen atom. And so by examining both elements here of the side chains in both threonine and glutamine, we can understand that they both participate in hydrogen bonding. Three has a hydroxy group and glutamine has an amino group, both of these contain hydrogen atoms that can form hydrogen bonds. So there you have it, our answer here is going to be the hydrogen bond. And 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 R groups of the following amino acids in a tertiary structure?
c. serine and aspartate

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Amino Acid R Groups

Hydrogen Bonding

Ionic Interactions

What type of interaction would you expect between the R groups of the following amino acids in a tertiary structure?c. serine and aspartate

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Amino Acid R Groups

Hydrogen Bonding

Ionic Interactions

What type of interaction would you expect between the R groups of the following amino acids in a tertiary structure?
c. serine and aspartate