Polypeptides and Amino Acids Go to Appendix c. If you are using a TI-83 Plus, you can download the program PEPTIDE and run the application as directed. If you are using another calculator, your teacher will provide you with keystrokes to use. There are 20 amino acids that occur in proteins found in nature. The program will prompt you to input a number of amino acids. After you do, press ENTER. The program will respond with the number of different straight-chain polypeptides possible given that number of amino acid units. a. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that is a dipeptide, a protein made of two amino acids. How many possible dipep- tides are there? b. Enkephalins produced in the brain serve to help the body deal with pain. Several of them are pentapeptides. That is, they are polypeptides made of five amino acids. How many different pentapeptides are there? c.The calculator uses the following equation: This equation can also be expressed as: number of polypeptides \(=\) $$\left(2^{\text { (number of amino acids } )}\right)\left(10^{\text { (number of amino acids } )}\right)$$ Given this equation, estimate how many possible polypeptides there are that are made of 100 amino acids? (Hint: The answer is too large for your calculator. However, you can use the graphing calculator to find the value of \(2^{(\text { number of amino acids })} . )\)

Step by step solution

01

Calculate the number of dipeptides

Since a dipeptide consists of 2 amino acids, we substitute the number of amino acids in the given formula. i.e. we calculate \((2^2)(10^2)\)

02

Calculate the number of pentapeptides

A pentapeptide is made up of five amino acids. So for a pentapeptide, we substitute 5 in the given formula. i.e. we calculate \((2^5)(10^5)\)

03

Estimate the number of polypeptides consisting of 100 amino acids

The formula for calculating the number of polypeptides uses exponentiation, which yields very large numbers for larger amino acids. Because of this, it is explained that the calculator will not be able to handle such a large number (for 100 amino acids). We will estimate the number by calculating \((2^{100})(10^{100})\) using any means possible

04

Interpret the results

The calculations in the above steps show the vast variety and diversity possible in the formation of polypeptides. This correlates with the vast number of different proteins and their functions that we see in biological organisms.

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