alleryStart learning →How many amino acid residues does each turn of an alpha helix contain?
A1.8 residues
B3.6 residues
C6.3 residues
D10.4 residues
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. 3.6 residues
1. The alpha helix is a regular repeating coil, so each turn contains a fixed number of residues.
2. Every helical turn has 3.6 amino acid residues.
3. The R groups of those residues protrude outward from the helix chain.
4. The figure is not a whole number, so halving it or reversing its two digits gives values that look plausible but do not match the helix.
_Source: OpenStax Biology (1st ed., CC BY 4.0), Ch 3 "Biological Macromolecules", section 3.4 Proteins_
Keep practising Biological Macromolecules
Browse all Biological Macromolecules questions for CSIR NET, or explore more Biology topics.
Related questions
Even though RNA is single stranded, what shape does most RNA still take?Which RNA is the smallest, and what does it do?What is the role of transfer RNA in protein synthesis?If a DNA strand reads AATTGCGC, what is the sequence of the complementary RNA?Which are the four major types of RNA?How is RNA built compared with DNA?If one DNA strand reads AATTGGCC, what does its complementary strand read?What distance separates one base pair from the next in the DNA double helix?