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A biopolymer is a polymer found in nature. Starch, proteins and peptides, and DNA and RNA are all examples of biopolymers, in which the monomer units, respectively, are sugars, amino acids, and nucleic acids. The exact chemical composition and the sequence in which these units are arranged is called the polymer's primary structure. Many biopolymers spontaneously " fold" into characteristic shapes, which determine their biological functions and depend in a complicated way on their primary structures. Structural biology is the study of the shapes of biopolymers.
The convention for a protein is to list its constituent amino acid residues as they occur from the amino terminus to the carboxylic acid terminus.
The convention for a nucleic acid sequence is to list the nucleotides as they occur from the 5' end to the 3' end of the polymer chain, where 5' and 3' refer to the numbering of carbons around the ribose ring which participate in forming the phosphate diester linkages of the chain. Such a sequence is called the primary structure of the biopolymer.
There are a number of biophysical techniques for determining sequence information. Protein sequence can be determined by Edman degradationEdman degradation developed by Pehr Edman, is a method of sequencing amino acids in a peptide. In this method, the amino-terminal residue is labeled and cleaved from the peptide without disrupting other peptide bonds between other amino acid residues., in which the N-terminal residues are hydrolyzed from the chain one at a time, derivatized, and then identified. Mass spectrometerSpectrograph, Spectroscope A spectrometer is an instrument for measuring some property of light as a function of some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The measured variable is often the light intensity but could be the polarization state, for inst techniques can also be used. Nucleic acid sequence can be determined using gel electrophoresis and capillary electrophoresis.
See also: SequencingFor the sense of "sequencing" used in electronic music, see the music sequencer article. In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (or primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic, DNA sequenceA DNA sequence (sometimes genetic sequence is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, The possible letters are A C G and T representing the four nucleotide subunits of a DNA strand ( ade, condensation polymerCondensation polymers (or polyamides are any class of polymer formed through a condensation reaction, as opposed to addition polymers which involve the reaction of unsaturated monomers. Nylon is a common condensation polymer. It is manufactured by reactins, biomaterialIn surgery, a biomaterial is a synthetic material used to replace part of a living system or to function in intimate contact with living tissue. Compare this definition to that of bio-based material. The Clemson University Advisory Board for Biomaterialss
Biochemistry Genetics Molecular biology
