Editor’s notice: Nathan Ahlgren is an assistant professor of biology at Clark College. On this interview, he explains precisely what proteins are, how they’re made, and the wide range of capabilities they carry out within the human physique.
What’s a protein?
A protein is a fundamental construction that’s present in all of life. It’s a molecule. And the important thing factor a few protein is it’s made up of smaller elements, known as amino acids. I like to consider them as a string of various coloured beads. Every bead would signify an amino acid, that are smaller molecules containing carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and generally sulfur atoms. So a protein primarily is a string that’s made up of those little particular person amino acids. There are 22 completely different amino acids that you would be able to mix in any form of completely different method.
A protein doesn’t often exist as a string, however really folds up into a selected form, relying on the order and the way these completely different amino acids work together collectively. That form influences what the protein does in our physique.
The place do the amino acids come from?
The amino acids in our physique come from the meals we eat. We additionally make them in our physique. For instance, different animals make proteins and we eat these. Our our bodies take that chain and break it down into the person amino acids. Then it could actually remake them into any protein that we want.
As soon as the proteins are damaged down into amino acids within the digestive system, they’re taken to our cells and form of float round contained in the cell, as these little particular person beads in our analogy. After which contained in the cell, your physique principally connects them collectively to make the proteins that your physique must make.
We are able to make about half of the amino acids we want on our personal, however we have now to get the others from our meals.
What do proteins do in our physique?
Scientists will not be precisely positive, however most agree that there are round 20,000 completely different proteins in our physique. Some research recommend that there is likely to be much more. They perform a wide range of capabilities from doing a little metabolic conversions to holding your cells collectively to inflicting your muscle tissues to work.
Their capabilities fall into a couple of broad classes. One is structural. Your physique is made up of many various sorts of buildings – consider stringlike buildings, globules, anchors, and so forth. They kind the stuff that holds your physique collectively. Collagen is a protein that provides construction to your pores and skin, bones and even tooth. Integrin is a protein that makes versatile linkages between your cells. Your hair and nails are manufactured from a protein known as keratin.
One other huge function that they tackle is biochemistry – how your physique carries out explicit reactions in your cell, like breaking down fats or amino acids. Keep in mind once I stated our physique breaks down the protein from the meals that we eat? Even that perform is carried out by proteins like pepsin. One other instance is hemoglobin – the protein that carries oxygen round in your blood. So that they’re finishing up these particular chemical reactions inside your self.
Proteins may also course of indicators and knowledge, like circadian clock proteins which hold time in our cells, however these are a couple of primary classes of capabilities that proteins perform within the cell.
Why is protein typically related to muscle tissues and meat?
Several types of meals have completely different sorts of protein content material. There are plenty of carbohydrates in crops like wheat and rice, however they’re much less wealthy in protein content material. However meat basically has extra protein content material. Numerous protein is required to make the muscle tissues in your physique. That’s why protein is usually related to consuming meat and constructing muscle, however proteins are actually concerned in a lot, far more than that.
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– “is protein a molecule”
“is protein a molecule”