Of Polipeptidopolipeptido ( from the Greek to do» IA " lot "? and Aµaaia " digested " ) It is the name used to designate a peptide of sufficiently large size; as guidance, you can speak more than 10 amino acids. When the polypeptide is large enough and, in particular, when has a unique and stable three-dimensional structure, one speaks of a protein.Chemically, a polypeptide is a polyamide, with the only caveat that constituent monomers are only amino acids in alpha helix.
A polypeptide chain consists of a linear chain of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. The top of the chain corresponds to the terminal amino group, and the primary structure is the sequence in which are located all constituents up to the terminal carboxyl. This sequence is coded Geneticamenteexisten any number of amino acids polypeptide chains, without any solution of continuity between peptides and proteins. By Convention, it is often considered protein to those who polypeptide with a molecular weight of the order of 10,000 or more.
