Cells

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Proteins

Proteins are the building blocks of life, made up of polypeptide chains.

What do you normally think of when people say proteins?

Proteins are one of the three main biological molecules. We get these biological molecules from the food we eat. What are the other two?

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These are proteins

Or rather, this is a simplified illustration of proteins.

Proteins are built up of amino acids. How many amino acids are in protein 1?

How many amino acids do you think a protein is made of?

Proteins are made up of amino acids

The number of amino acids in a protein depends on what kind of protein it is. And there are many types of proteins!

Are there different kinds of amino acids?

Now, proteins contain the same 3 elements as carbohydrates, carbon $C$ , oxygen $O$ and hydrogen $H$ , but they can also contain another two. Which two, do you think?

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To recap!

Proteins are one of the three main biological molecules

The other two are carbohydrates and lipids (fats).

Proteins are built up of chains of amino acids

The number and kind of amino acids depends on what protein it is.

Proteins can contain five elements

Carbon $C$ , oxygen $O$ , hydrogen $H$ , nitrogen $N$ and sulfur $S$ .

When we look at full proteins, they don't really look like a simple string of beads.

They look more like a string of beads scrunched up in a ball. They are in fact very complex structures.

What has happened to the chain of amino acids in step 2 in this image?

Step 3 is a model of the protein haemoglobin which carries oxygen in our blood. It actually consists of multiple proteins put together. How many?

True or false? Different proteins have different shapes.

So different proteins have different shapes. Why do you think that is?

The building blocks of proteins are called ________ _________.

Proteins contain the elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, ___________ and sulfur.

Summary

Proteins are one of the three main biological molecules

There are loads of different kinds of proteins, for example haemoglobin, collagen and actin. They are extremely important for making sure that organisms function.

Proteins are made up of chains of amino acids that are folded into different shapes

The shape and size of the protein and the kind and order of amino acids in it depend on what kind of protein it is.

Proteins can contain 5 elements

Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur.