Amino Acid -Glycine

Perito · Mar 8, 2009, 12:59 PM

I'm guessing a bit here.

I believe they're talking about the side chains of the amino acids when they rate them as polar or non-polar. Since glycine has no side chains:

NH2 - CH2 - COOH

It is classified as non-polar.

I think there is actually some polarity but the electronegativity of the nitrogen counteracts some of the electronegativity of the oxygens and you're left with a "fairly non-polar" molecule (how's that for dodging the question?).

This probably isn't the answer you hoped for. Maybe some other genius can shed more light on this.

templelane · Mar 8, 2009, 01:22 PM

Perito your right.

Glycine isn't non polar when considred as a single molecule, however it is callsed as a non polar amino acid when considering it's inclusion in a polypeptide or protien structure. This is indeed because of it's lack of side chain.

See this venn diagram for the amino acids classifications according to side chains:

http://apodtele.googlepages.com/aa_venn_diagram.jpg

This is very useful information when trying to understand protein structure and function.

Amino Acid -Glycine

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