| Proline is an imino acid.
It has an imino group (-NH) - blue with one white ball - within a ring structure, and a carboxylic acid group (-COOH) - grey, connected to red, and red and white - at the other end of the molecule. These groups are used to link onto other amino acids by peptide bonds. There is not really the equivalent of an R group.
Other informationProline is the only imino acid amongst 19 amino acids which are found in common proteins. Its nitrogen has 1 not 2 hydrogen atoms attached, and when this is used in bonding there is no other hydrogen atom to form hydrogen bonds. The presence of proline therefore distorts the shape of an alpha helix, although it does not do so if it is the first or second in the polypeptide chain (counting from the N-terminal end). It also prevents the formation of beta-pleated sheetYou can move this molecule in 3 dimensions by holding down the left button and dragging using the mouse. If you have a central mouse wheel you can usually zoom the image in/out. Right clicking gives a variety of display options. Simply leaving the mouse pointer over one of the atoms will give information about it; the atom symbol, and some other less useful numerical information. |
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