Organic Chemistry: Concepts and Applications - Headley Allan D. 2020

Synthetic Polymers and Biopolymers
20.13 Secondary Structure of Proteins

Now that we have covered the primary structure of proteins, in this section, we will briefly examine the intermolecular and intramolecular interactions of peptides in proteins. Shown below is the type of hydrogen bond that exists between strands of peptides. These intermolecular interactions make up the secondary structure of proteins. As shown, there are strands of peptides that are hydrogen bonded together to form sheets, hence the term β-sheets are also used to describe this structure of peptides and proteins.

Image

It is possible to have hydrogen bonds within the same strand of a peptide. Such structures are typically referred to as α-helix.