2. Cell Chemistry & Cell Components
Proteins
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In this video we're going to begin our lesson on proteins. Now proteins are one of the major classes of biomolecule polymers that are made up of amino acid, monomers. And so amino acids are the monomers that make up proteins. Now the covalent bonds that link adjacent amino acids together in a chain are specifically referred to as peptide bonds. And we'll be able to see some examples of these peptide bonds down below in our image. But, it's also important to note that the protein polymers are actually going to have directionality, meaning that in the chain of the protein polymer one end is going to be chemically different than the opposite end. And so we refer to these ends as the n terminal end and the c terminal end. And so let's take a look at our example image down below at the formation of proteins from amino acid monitors to get a better idea of these concepts. And so notice over here on the far left hand side, we're showing you all of these separate individual circles which represent amino acid monomers. And so these are amino acids that are separate from each other. But of course, if we join these amino acid monomers together in a chain like what we see here, then we're building ourselves a protein polymer. And notice that the protein polymer has directionality because on one end over here, it's chemically different than the opposite end over here. And so the end that has the amino group like what we see over here is referred to as the n terminal n because it the amino group has a nitrogen atom. And then this other group that we see over here on the opposite end is referred to as the c terminal end because it has a carboxyl group, which we see, over here. And then notice that each of these separate amino acid monomers are being covalently linked together through these bonds that we see right here. And these bonds that covalently link the adjacent amino acids together are referred to as peptide bonds. And so, this here really concludes our introduction to proteins and we're going to continue to talk more and more about proteins as we move forward in our course. And so I'll see you all in our next video.
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