Written by Prerak Juthani (PEACE Advisor) 

Which of the following is the strongest aspect of tertiary structure?

a) hydrogen bonds in the backbone of the proteins.

b) hydrogen bonds among the R groups of the amino acids.

c) disulfide bonds

d) hydrophobic interactions

e) van der waals interactions


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The correct answer is C. Firstly, it is important to remember that tertiary structure of a protein refers to a protein’s shape as the R groups of the amino acids interact. This is different entirely from secondary structure, where the backbone of the amino acids (the conserved N to C amide linkages) interacts with itself via hydrogen bonding (making alpha helices and beta pleaded sheets), which makes A incorrect.  

With that being said, all of the remaining answer choices are POSSIBLE. You can have hydrogen bonding between polar R groups, hydrophobic interactions among nonpolar R groups, and also disulfide bonds, which form when two cysteine molecules somewhere in the chain covalently cross-link their thiol groups. Van Der Waals interactions, which are referring to the sum of attraction/repulsive forces that are exclusive of covalent bonds are also possible, but notice how this is just a clever restatement of answer choices B and D. 

With the definitions out of the way, we can now think about the strength of each of these forces. Specifically, B, D, and E are all INTER-molecular forces, while a covalent bond (choice C) is an INTRA-molecular force. If you recall from general chemistry, intermolecular forces are WEAKER than intramolecular forces, and thus C is the correct answer. 

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