disulphide bond
n=1
Close, But There May Be A Better One....
a: Disulphide bond ~
b: molecular handcuffs
What: Amino acid polymers, proteins, are long stringy affairs that have complex 3-d structures. They are held together , in part, by bonding to themselves. One type of internal bond, a covalent bond, is a disulphide bond. It keeps the protein from flopping around and loosing it's shape. This is somewhat like handcuffs that keep a prisoners' arms and hands from moving around. And to push this analogy a bit, key to this lock-bond can be B-mercaptoethanol. BME , as it's known, is a powerful reducing agent that breaks the disulphide bond, opening the handcuffs as it were.
Useful?
Writer: Lucretia
LCC:
Where:
Date: May 6 2013 10:45 AM
# 2928 Critique Analogy
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.