Here are the essential concepts you must grasp in order to answer the question correctly.
Amino Acids
Amino acids are organic compounds that serve as the building blocks of proteins. Each amino acid consists of a central carbon atom, an amino group, a carboxyl group, a hydrogen atom, and a variable side chain (R group). In proteins, amino acids are linked together by peptide bonds to form polypeptides, which fold into functional proteins.
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Peptide Bonds
Peptide bonds are covalent chemical bonds that link amino acids together in a protein. They form through a dehydration synthesis reaction, where the carboxyl group of one amino acid reacts with the amino group of another, releasing a molecule of water. Each peptide bond connects two amino acids, contributing to the protein's primary structure.
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Protein Structure
Protein structure refers to the three-dimensional arrangement of amino acids in a protein, which determines its function. The primary structure is the linear sequence of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. Understanding the number of amino acids helps in determining the number of peptide bonds, as each bond forms between two amino acids, leading to one less bond than the total number of amino acids.
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