Name: Important Sources of Vitamins
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 2 min 57 s
Description: Vitamins are essential for several biochemical reactions and the development of the body. This video describes their sources, types based on their solubility...

Question

What is an amino acid? What does it form on polymerization?

Accepted Answer

Amino acids are organic compounds containing both an amino group $(- {NH}_{2})$ and carboxyl group $(- COOH)$ along with the side chain $R$ specific to each amino acid. Depending upon the relative position of the amino group with respect to a carboxyl group, the amino acids can be classified as $α, β, γ, δ$ and so on. They are represented by the general formula-

Polymerization is a process of forming larger polymers through the number of amino acids residues per molecule(dipeptide, tripeptide, polypeptide, etc). The formation of peptide bonds can continue until a molecule containing several hundred thousands amino acids is formed. By convention a peptide having molecular mass upto $10, 000 μ$ is called polypeptide, while a peptide having a molecular mass more than $10, 000 μ$ is called a protein. Thus, the sequence in which the amino acids are linked in one or more polypeptide chains of a protein is called primary structure of protein whereas polypeptide chains are folded or arranged gives secondary structure of protein.

What is an amino acid? What does it form on polymerization?

Important Questions on Biomolecules

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