How are leucine, serine and cysteine amino acids similar and different?
Answer:
they are all amino acids NH2-C(R)-COOH - have NH2 group and COOH group (depending on the pH it can be NH3+ or COO-). the difference comes from the side chains - R - leucine has a nonpolar group (a branched hydrocarbon chain), serine and cystein have -OH and -SH groups, respectively, which are polar and reactive. Additionally, cysteine can form disulfide bonds Cys-S-S-Cys. Both Ser and Cys have groups that can act as nucleophiles under certain conditions (this is why some proteases contain those amino acids). The -OH and -SH groups can also participate in hydrogen bonding, due to the presence of polar groups, whereas the sidechain of leucine can only participate in hydrophobic interactions. For this reason, serine and cysteine would be more soluble in water than leucine.
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