In: Biology
(a) Estimate the volumes of the various amino acids in units of nm^3.
(b) Estimate the mass of a "typical" amino acid in daltons. Justify your estimate by explaining how many of each type of atom you chose. Compare your estimate with the actual mass of several key amino acids such as glycine, proline, arginine, and tryptophan.
(c) On the basis of your result for part (b), deduce a rule of thumb for converting the mass of a protein (reported in kDa) into a corresponding number of residues. Apply this rule of thumb to myosin, G-actin, hemoglobin, and hexokinase and compare your results with the actual number of residues in each of these proteins. Relevant data for this problem are provided on the book’s website.
http://microsite.garlandscience.com/pboc2/data.html