6. Protein

6.1 Presentation

The biochemical classification of proteins is as follows.

• Amino acids are the non-hydrolysable basic molecules of proteins. Standard amino acids are linked by condensation to form the other two groups. But there are also non-standard amino acids that are not protein building blocks.

• Peptides are hydrolyzable proteins made up of a few amino acids in oligopeptides (less than 10) or a larger number in polypeptides (from 10 to 50).

• Proteins are hydrolyzable protides with sequences of more than 50 (some authors 100) amino acids. Their molecular mass often exceeds 10 kD, and these substances are essentially macromolecules. A distinction is made between holoproteins,...