The protein I chose was Collagen. The code was PDB-101. Collagen is a critical protein to human life, one fourth of all the proteins in the human body are collagen. It is a structural protein that gives resilience to muscles and tendons, and creates sheets to support our skin and internal organs. Collagen is composed of three chains, which are tightly wound together making up the collagen triple helix; it a relatively simple protein. Every third amino acid in the chain is a glycine, which is vital because it is a very small amino acid that fits perfectly into the helix, helping make it so resilient. Vitamin C, and hydroxyproline are crucial for collagen to be a stable molecule. If one does not get the necessary amount of vitamin C in our diets and develop a deficiency, it will slow the production of hydroxyproline and stop the production of collagen. This causes the disease state known as scurvy. When an individual has scurvy, they can lose their teeth and bruise quite easily due to this lack of collagen which would normal fix the everyday wear on the body. On a lesser scale, loss of collagen production as the normal aging process occurs allow the skin, especially on the face to wrinkle and lose its elastic recoil. There are many cremes, serums, and facial treatments coming onto the market to help boost natural collagen production to help maintain firm, youthful skin.
Nice job describing a very diverse molecule! I liked the explanation about glycine and how it helps make the molecule resilient.
ReplyDeleteIt seems collagen has a lot of functions and implications. I really enjoyed your explanation about the relationship between collagen, Vitamin C, and hydroxyproline. I knew a deficiency in Vitamin C can lead to scurvy, but I never knew how or why this occurred. You did a very nice job detailing this chain reaction, and overall a great job covering a lot of information about an important protein.
Thank you. Clearly, it's true- collagen is essential for us to live and grow. I'm glad you learned something from my molecule summary. I also enjoyed learning about the relationship between Vitamin C deficiency, development of scurvy, and how collagen would normally fix the wear and tear in a normal individual. It seems that ads for the importance of collagen are everywhere now, so it was nice to learn a little more about its biochemistry.
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