In: Biology
What type of interactions are important and prevalent in biological systems? Non-covalent or Covalent? Please explain your choice. Can you provide examples of both these types of interactions in the context of protein structure that you learned.
In biological systems, both covalent as well as non-covalent interactions are prevalent. All the basic structural components of biomolecules have different types of interactions, some are involved in making of these biomolecules (like covalent interactions within and between monomeric units in Proteins, Nucliec acids, carbohydrates etc), while others are involved in stabilizng and giving a proper three-dimensional structures to add functional compexities.
As far as proteins are concerned, the primary structure has covalent interactions as within the aminoacids (in the form of C-C, C=O, C-H bonds) and between the aminoacids (in the form of peptide bonds). However the secondary structures like alpha-helices and Beta sheets are held together by intramolecular hydrogen bonds. Similiarly the tertiarry or quarternary 3-D structures involves other non-covalent interactions like electrostatic interactions, hydrophobic interactions and vanderwaal's interaction between the side chains of aminoacids belonging to same or different polypeptides.