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Naturally Occurring Polymers—Animals 379

3. To which pole will an amino acid migrate at a pH above its isoelectric point?
4. Why is collagen stronger than albumin?
5. What are the requirements for a strong fi ber?
6. Which protein would be more apt to be present in a helical conformation: (a) a linear polyamide
with small pendant groups or (b) a linear polyamide with bulky pendant groups?
7. What is the difference between the molecular weight of (a) ribose and (b) deoxyribose?
8. What is the repeating unit in the polymer DNA?
9. Which is more acidic: (a) a nucleoside or (b) a nucleotide?
10. What base found in DNA is not present in RNA?
11. Why would you predict helical conformations for RNA and DNA?
12. If the sequence of one chain of a double helix of DNA is ATTACGTCAT, what is the sequence
of the adjacent chain?
13. Why is it essential to have trinucleotides rather than dinucleotides as codons for directing pro-
tein synthesis?
14. Why is E. Coli most often used in gene splicing?
15. A protein that is rich in glutamic acid and aspartic acid will be rich in what kind of functional
groups present as substituents on the alpha carbon? Will it be attracted, in electrophoresis, to
the positive or negative side? What is this kind of protein polymer called?
16. The inclusion of which amino acids into proteins are responsible for the sulfur found in coal?
What is the consequence of the presence of this sulfur?
17. Which of the amino acids contribute to the formation of nitrogen oxides? What is the conse-
quence of the presence of this nitrogen to our atmospheric air?
18. What is the general shape of our enzymes? Why do they take this shape? What are they com-
posed of?
19. What are essential amino acids?
20. Sulfur is contained in some amino acids. What else is sulfur utilized for in our bodies?
21. Since much of a protein is not active and is at times referred to as junk, why is it there?
22. Describe briefly the typical flow of biological information.

23. What role do “chaperonins” play in protein formation?
24. Why are the active sites of proteins found either as a cleft in the macromolecule or shallow
depression on its surface and not thrust out where there is little hindrance for entry of the
molecules?

25. Select a particular disease or illness and using the web find out what is known about its molec-
ular biology including gene location.
26. What is the probability of a match if three tests were positive with the following probabilities:
1 in 100; 1 in 1,000, and 1 in 250?

ADDITIONAL READING

Bloomfield, V., Crothers, D., Tinoco, I. (2000): Nucleic Acids, University Science Books, Sausalito, CA.
Cheng, H. N., Gross, R. A. (2005): Polymer Biocatalysis and Biomaterials, Oxford University Press, NY.
Chiellini, E. (2001): Biorelated Polymers, Kluwer, NY.
Chiellini, E. (2001): Biomedical Polymers and Polymer Therapeutics, Kluwer, NY.
Dumitriu, S. (2001): Polymeric Biomaterials, Dekker, NY.
Ferre, F. (1997): Gene Quantifi cation, Springer-Verlag, NY.
Gebelein, C. Carraher, C. (1995): Industrial Biotechnological Polymers, Technomic, Lancaster, PA.
Kaplan, D. (1994): Silk Polymers, ACS, Washington, DC.
Klok, H., Schlaad, H. (2006): Peptide Hybrid Polymers, Springer, NY.
Kobayashi, S., Kaplan, D., Ritter, H. (2006): Enzyme-Catalyzed Synthesis of Polymers, Springer, NY.
Malsten, M. (2003): Biopolymers at Interfaces, Dekker, NY.
McGrath, K., Kaplan, D. (1997): Protein-Based Materials, Springer-Verlag, NY.
Merrifield, R. B. (1975): Solid phase peptide synthesis, Polymer Prep., 16:135.

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