In: Chemistry
Leucine is replaced in a protein with Ala or with Asn which substituion would you expect to disrupt protein structure the most?
ala or asn
Note the structures of Leucine, Alanine and Asparagine as below (structures taken from internet sources).
Leucine Alanine Asparagine
It can be easily seen that Leucine and Alanine both contains alkyl groups (isobutyl in Leucine and methyl in Alanine) while Asaparagine contains a polar side chain (the CONH2 group in Asaparagine is polar). Therefore, Asn will undergo reactions differently as compared to Leu or Ala due to the polar nature of the Asn residue. Hence, Asn is expected to disrupt the protein structure more.