protein folding Flashcards
what was bovine spongiform encephalopathies commonly known as?
mad cows disease
when was mad cows disease a public health issue?
1990’s
what were the symptoms of BSE?
cattle would exhibit abnormal behaviour
couldnt mobilise
hind legs would give way
what was the onset of symptoms to death time period of BSE?
weeks to months
what was creutzfeldt-jakob disease?
human form of BSE
what was the median age of onset of creutzfeldt-jakob disease?
68
what was variant CJD?
resembled BSE
had a lower age of onset compared to CJD and had a longer illness duration
what was Kuru?
a fatal neurodegenerative disorder similar vCJD
shaking disorder
who was affected by Kuru?
a group of indigenous people in Papa New Guinea
women and children
when was Kuru an issue?
1950’s
why do proteins need to fold?
to assume active, functional conformation
folded proteins more stable
folded structure determines function
what experiment did Christian Anfinsen conduct?
renaturation experiments with RNase
denatured proteins with heat and reducing agents and then incubated the unfolded proteins under milder conditions
yeild of spontaneous refolding was more than 90%
what was the key conclusion of the Anfinsen experiments?
demonstrated that proteins encode all the information neccessary to fold
no cellular mechanisms are needed
3D conformation is determined by amino acid sequence
how can the configuration of a protein be changed?
only by breaking of covalent bonds
how can the conformation of a protein be changed?
by rotating the bonds
what is the meaning of an L isomer amino acid?
an amino acid that has a non superimposable mirror image counterpart
what is the name of the graph that can be used to determine the angles of rotation in an amino acid?
ramachandran plot
what are the names of the two torsion angles present in an amino acid?
phi and psi
what kind of bond characteristic does a peptide bond possess?
double bond characteristic
what is a trans isomer?
R groups are on opposite sides of the peptide bond