Discovery in Protein Explorer
A protein molecule may be assigned to you by your teacher, or a list
of molecules may be provided from which you can pick one.
Ask your teacher whether you are responsible for any of the optional questions.
Write your answers on separate sheets of paper.
- How many protein chains are in your molecule? Are there any nucleic
acid chains?
Optional:
Are any of the chains identical in sequence with each other?
Are there any gaps in the chains? Are the nucleic acids DNA or RNA?
- Does your protein have any disulfide bonds? Are there any disulfide
bonds between chains?
- Briefly summarize the secondary structure of your protein. Is is all alpha helix,
all beta strands, or a mixture of both?
- Are there any ligands in your protein? If so, what are they?
Optional:
Describe their contacts
with the protein.
- Optional: Does your protein have an "active site"?
If so, what secondary structures are included in the active site?
- Does your protein exhibit a hydrophobic core?
Optional: Is the surface of
your protein largely hydrophilic or hydrophobic? Based on the surface
of your protein, do you think it is soluble in water, or is it
a transmembrane domain?
- Do you think your protein is neutral, or has negative or positive
net charge at pH 7? If it has a net charge, how does this support
its function?
Optional:
What is the isoelectric point (pI) of your protein?
What is its quantitative net charge at ph 7?
- Is there anything unusual or unexpected about your protein?
- What are the important biological functions of your protein?
How does its structure support its functions?
Optional:
What is the primary literature reference for this structure?
-
Optional:
How many PDB file entries are in the Protein Data Bank that describe
your protein?