What kind of bond would you expect between the side chains of the following amino acids?
c. Aspartic acid and asparagine

Question

What kind of bond would you expect between the side chains of the following amino acids?

c. Aspartic acid and asparagine

Accepted Answer

All right. Hi, everyone. So this question is asking us to determine the type of bond formed between the side chains of lysine and aspartic acid. Option A says ionic interactions. Option B says disulfide bridge. Option C says hydrophobic interactions and option D says hydrogen bonding. So recall first and foremost that lysine and aspartic acid are in fact, amino acids that are building blocks of proteins. Now, the tertiary structure of a protein is the overall three dimensional shape of it and the three dimensional shape of a given protein is dictated by the interactions between the side chains of amino acids. So four possible interactions are listed as each of the answer choices. So before we discuss the structures of lysine and aspartic acid, I want to go ahead and define all of these interactions starting off with ionic interactions. For option eight, recall that ionic interactions are ones that take place between two charged amino acid side changes. In other words, one side chain has a positive charge and the other has a negative charge. Now, on the other hand, we have a disulfide bridge for Option B and a disulfide bridge is unique because it's actually a covalent bond formed between two residues of sy in Sistine if you recall has an sh or a file group at the very end of its side chain. So when the two thy groups combine together, they create a covalent bond in between both sulfur atoms. Hence the term die sufi for option C, we have the hydrophobic interactions that take place between non polar side chains. Now, specifically hydrophobic interactions are a result of the London dispersion forces that these nonpolar side chains are capable of, right, that they participated and last but not least is hydrogen bonding. Now recall that hydrogen bonding requires a side chain that has a hydrogen bound to a highly electron element. These include oxygen, nitrogen and fluoride. So in other words, amino acids that have side chains that contain, for example, oh groups or in each two groups are examples of ones that participate in h bonding so long as those are neutral. So now we can go ahead and recall the structures of lysine and aspartic acid. So recall also that all amino acids found in the human body have a very distinct structure to them. They have a very characteristic backbone to them in which we have an alpha carbon at the center of the structure connecting to one hydrogen, one amino group containing a nitrogen and one carboxylic acid group and an R group or simply the side chain of that given amino acid. So because both lysine and aspartic acid have the same backbone or the same general structure. I'm going to go ahead and write out the general structure twice. The only difference would have to be their side chain, which is unique to each amino acid. So here I have two copies of my general structure that I'm going to go ahead and space out just a little bit. So on the left side of the screen here, I'm going to write out the structure of lysine abbreviated as LYS. And on the right side, I'm going to write the structure of a SP or aspartic acid. So lysine, if you recall is an amino acid that contains a side chain consisting of four carbon atoms in a straight chain followed by one amino group at the very end. So that's lying. And on the other hand, aspartic acid as a side chain consisting of a two carbon carboxylic acid. So we have one carbon connecting off of the alpha carbon and the other with the carboxyl group. Now, what I want to point out here is that I've drawn the fully ionized forms of both amino acid, the side chain of lying has a positive charge on nitrogen. Whereas the side chain of aspartic acid has a negative charge on oxygen, both side chains contain a charge. So therefore they participate in ionic interactions. And so our answer is option a in the multiple choice and there you have it. So with that being said, thank you so very much for watching. And I hope you found this helpful.

What kind of bond would you expect between the side chains of the following amino acids?
c. Aspartic acid and asparagine

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Amino Acid Structure

Ionic Bonds

Hydrogen Bonds

What kind of bond would you expect between the side chains of the following amino acids?c. Aspartic acid and asparagine

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Amino Acid Structure

Ionic Bonds

Hydrogen Bonds

What kind of bond would you expect between the side chains of the following amino acids?
c. Aspartic acid and asparagine