[TOPIC 4] Amino Acids and Proteins

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

To be very honest, I don't really like learning about amino acids and proteins but you know that one quote 

"You'll never know unless you try"

There are 20 essential amino acids and Dr. Amalia told us to try memorise it. I don't want to! Haha. I'm trying to accept the fact that it's inevitable. I am bounded to amino acids and proteins if I were to pursue this course; or maybe as my career, who knows~

Hence, I will try my best to memorise them. Wholeheartedly. x'D

For this topic, we learnt mostly about the structures of the amino acids. Including the structures of all the 20 amino acids. 

What's interesting about the amino acids is that they each have their own letter code. I'm not sure whether we have to memorise this too or not. Ha ha. (dry laugh) 

Other than the structures, the chemical properties of the amino acids were also focused. The amino acids are grouped in four main groups which is polar, non-polar, acidic and basic. 

Actually, if we know the structure of the amino acids well, we can guess the chemical properties of them already. 

For example, the presence of amine group in the amino acids indicates that the amino acid is basic. Or the presence of sulphur or hydroxyl group which is known to be high in electronegativity indicates that it is polar; it can form bonds with other polar molecules. 

It can be concluded that the chemical properties depends on the side group present on the amino acids. 

#I'm not sure if I have been told about this before but I just knew today that physiological pH is actually pH 7.4; neutral pH. 

Other than that, we have to know the structure and significance of the alpha helix and beta pleated sheet and what bonds contribute in the structures. (It's hydrogen bond!).

One of the new thing I learnt during this topic is that structures or components known as 'turns' and 'loops' help to reverse the direction of the polypeptide chain. 

#The difference between loop and turn is that loop is used for long amino acid chains while turn is used for short amino acid chains. 

In conclusion, if you fully understand the structure and chemical properties as well as the functions of some structures. You can answer questions like 'what bonds connect the amino acids?' 'why the amino acid is acidic/basic?' 'what structure help to change the direction of the amino acid chains?'. 

The current topic seems a bit off topic from the usual stuff we learn about microbes. I miss the names of the microbes already. 

Let's study well, ok. We're all in this together after all. Hehe. 

Later! 

:)