In: Chemistry
Consider a alpha-helix "stretch" of a protein consisting of 20 amino acid residues compared to a Beta-strand "stretch" of a protein consisting of 20 amino acids(which of course is part of a Beta-sheet). What is the length of this alpha-helix and Beta-strand portion of the protein in angstroms?
Ans. # One turn (a repeating unit) of a-helix consists of 3.6 residues with a pitch of 5.4 A.
So,
Length of a-helix = (Pitch of helix) x Number of residues in helix
= (5.4 A / 3.6 residues) x 20 residues
= 30.0 A
# The repeating unit of antiparallel b-sheet consists of 3 residues with a length of 7.0A.
Length of b-sheet = (Length of repeating unit) x Number of residues in b-sheet
= (7.0 A / 3 residues) x 20 residues
= 46.67 A
# The repeating unit of parallel b-sheet consists of 3 residues with a length of 6.5A.
Length of b-sheet = (Length of repeating unit) x Number of residues in b-sheet
= (6.5 A / 3 residues) x 20 residues
= 4.33 A