Written by Prerak Juthani (PEACE Advisor)
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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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.