STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY (Elective - I) syllabus, JNTU (2007-2008)

UNIT I: INTRODUCTION

Levels of structures in Biological macromolecules, the chirality of biomolecules, proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids, cofactors, vitamins and hormones.

UNIT II: CONFORMATIONAL ANALYSIS

Forces that determine Protein and Nucleic acid structure, basic problems. Polypeptide chains; geometric, potential energy calculations, observed values for rotation angles, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interactions and water structures; ionic interactions, disulphide bonds.

UNIT III: PROTEIN FOLDING

Types of proteins and interactions that govern protein folding, protein structure, The protein globule and hydrophic interactionsorganized folds, folding mechanisms, membrane proteins, helix-coil transitions,

UNIT IV: BIOMOLECULAR INTERACTIONS

Molecular recognition, supramolecular interactions, Functional importance of Proteinprotein and protein-nucleic acid interactions. Specific and non-specific DNA-protein complexes.

UNIT V: STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF MACROMOLECULES

Prediction of protein structure; Sequence-structure relationships, Nucleic acids; general characteristics of nucleic acid structure, geometric, glycosidic bond rotational isomers backbone rotational isomers and ribose puckering forces stabilizing ordered forms, base pairing, base stacking; tertiary structure of nucleic acids.

UNITI VI: KINETICS OF LIGAND INTERACTIONS:

Biochemical Kinetics studies, uni-molecular reactions, simple bimolecular multiple intermediates, steady state kinetics, catalytic efficiency relaxation spectrometry, ribonuclease as an example.

UNIT VII: TECHNIQUES FOR THE STUDY OF BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURE & FUNCTION I

Size and shape of micro molecules: photons, chromophores, transition dipole moments, absorbance, and concentration. circular dichroism: molecular chirality and structural transitions of macromolecules, methods of direct visualizationmacromolecules as hydrodynamic particles - macromolecular diffusion ultra centrifugation viscometry.

UNIT VIII: TECHNIQUES FOR THE STUDY OF BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURE & FUNCTION II

X- ray crystallography; determination of molecular structures, X- ray fiber diffractionelectron microscopy; neutron scattering - light scattering, NMR spectroscopy.

Text Book:

1. Tinoco, I., Jr., Sauer, K., Wang, J. C., & Puglisi, J. D. (2001) Physical Chemistry:

Principles and Applications in Biological Sciences, 4th ed. Prentice Hall.

References :

1. Introduction to Protein Architecture, by A.M. Lesk

2. Introduction to Protein Structure, by Branden and Tooze