"The structure of the synthetic a-polypeptides"

Date:
[1953]-1954
Reference:
PP/CRI/H/1/18
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: "The structure of the synthetic a-polypeptides". Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It can no longer be claimed that the a-keratin pattern cannot be in terpreted in terras of the a -helix. It still remains to be established that this explanation is correct, and to work out the details of the structure, which Is in any case likey to be more complicated than this simple picture. As to the globular proteins, the key molecules of molecular biology, it is at the moment a matter of opinion how valuable the a -helix is going to be in unravelling their structure. It is certain that globular proteins do not consist entirely of o-helices arranged strictly parallel to one another, or their structure would have been found long ago. How much, if any, of their polypeptide chains are coiled in the a -helix configuration remains to be discovered. % The a -helix, then, is the basis of the structure of the folded syn thetic polypeptides. It is probably the basis of the fibrous «-pro teins . it may be an important feature of the globular proteins. One can readily agree with Edsal fwho has wri tten'....the formulation of the a-helix seems to me to be one of the great creative triumphs of thinking in the field of protein chemistry.'