What are the basic units of protein?

Answer 1

Amino acidsAmino acids, of which there are about 20 basic types make up proteins. Some different amino acids are cysteine, alanine, lysine, leucine, phenylalanine, valine, methionine and isoleucine, histidine, proline, serine, tryptophan, aspartic acid and glycine.

Amino acids are composed of a carboxyl group (COOH group), a NH2 group or amine group, a hydrogen, and an R-group (all around a central carbon).

Amino acids string themselves into chains to form polypeptides. Polypeptides react with one another to form structures (many globular) called proteins.

The seqence of amino acids is essential to the type of protein formed. For example one protein that has its amino acid chain starting alanine-alanine-lysine is a completely different protein to one that begins alanine-lysine-alanine for example.

amino acids

Answer 2

The fundamental 'building blocks' of proteins are amino acids, which join via peptide bonds to form polypeptides. Polypeptides themselves fold and associate with other polypeptides to form the 3 dimensional shapes of their specific proteins. There are 23 types of amino acids, 20 of which are ubiquitous across all life. Examples of types of amino acids are alanine, valine, isoleucine and phenylalanine. DNA codes for the different amino acids that constitute proteins. A triplet code codes for a single amino acid.

Answer 3

The basic units of proteins are amino acids. Amino acids are organic compounds made up of an amine group, a carboxylic acid group, and a side chain. Proteins are composed of long chains of amino acids that fold into specific shapes to perform various functions in the body.