Essential Biology: Proteins (7,5 / C1)

Don’t forget the basics from the Core.

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Animations:

• Simple four levels of structure, by John Gianni
• Learner.org description of the four levels
• Protein formation from Montana State University
• Explanation of protein folding from Interactive Concepts in Biochemistry
• A more advanced text on protein structure

Check that you know the different levels of protein structure, including the roles of hydrogen bonds and disulfide bridges. Think about how the properties of the R-groups on amino acids cause the protein to fold up in a set configuration.

Make sure you can give examples of fibrous and globular proteins and that you can name some examples of uses of proteins that are not structural or related to the plasma membrane.

The revision notes from Click4Biology are here.

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TOK: Prions and Paradigms

Scare yourself silly with this article by Ed Yong on prions – malformed, disease-causing proteins.

We know that diseases can be sporadic, communicable or inherited. But the new paradigm – prion diseases – tells us that some can be all three at the same time.

Here is a McGraw Hill animation on how prions arise.

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Fun

Play foldit!

Nature: victory for crowdsourced biomolecule design

Foldit players give breakthrough in HIV research

Key terms: protein, primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, globular, fibrous, polar, non-polar, membrane, channel, pump, polypeptide, h-bonds, alpha-helix, beta pleated  sheet, active site, R-group, bond, hydrophilic channels,