(BT05533) STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY

Unit I: Introduction
Levels of structures in Biological macromolecules, the chirality of biomolecules,
proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids, cofactors, vitamins and hormones.
Unit II: Conformational Analysis
Forces that determine Protein and Nucleic acid structure, basic problems.
Polypeptide chains; geometric, potential energy calculations, observed values for
rotation angles, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interactions and water structures;
ionic interactions, disulphide bonds.
Unit III: Protein folding
Types of proteins and interactions that govern protein folding, protein structure,
The protein globule and hydrophic interactionsorganized folds, folding mechanisms,
membrane proteins, helix-coil transitions,
Unit IV: Biomolecular interactions
Molecular recognition, supramolecular interactions, Functional importance of Proteinprotein
and protein-nucleic acid interactions. Specific and non-specific DNA-protein
complexes.
Unit V: Structural Analysis of Macromolecules I
Prediction of protein structure; Sequence-structure relationships, Nucleic acids;
general characteristics of nucleic acid structure, geometric, glycosidic bond rotational
isomers backbone rotational isomers and ribose puckering forces stabilizing ordered
forms, base pairing, base stacking; tertiary structure of nucleic acids.
UnitI VI: Kinetics of Ligand Interactions:
Biochemical Kinetics studies, uni-molecular reactions, simple bimolecular multiple
intermediates, steady state kinetics, catalytic efficiency relaxation spectrometry,
ribonuclease as an example.
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Unit VII: Techniques For The Study Of Biological Structure & Function I
Size and shape of micro molecules: photons, chromophores, transition dipole
moments, absorbance, and concentration. circular dichroism: molecular chirality
and structural transitions of macromolecules, methods of direct visualizationmacromolecules
as hydrodynamic particles - macromolecular diffusion ultra
centrifugation viscometry.
Unit VIII: Techniques For The Study Of Biological Structure & Function II
X- ray crystallography; determination of molecular structures, X- ray fiber diffraction
electron microscopy; neutron scattering - light scattering, NMR spectroscopy.
Text Book:
1. Tinoco, I., Jr., Sauer, K., Wang, J. C., & Puglisi, J. D. (2001) Physical Chemistry:
Principles and Applications in Biological Sciences, 4th ed. Prentice Hall.
References :
1. Introduction to Protein Architecture, by A.M. Lesk
2. Introduction to Protein Structure, by Branden and Tooze