- Home
- Show all categories
- Spring 2017 Getting Started
- General, Non-Lecture-Specific Questions
- Domains of Life; Prokaryotic vs. Eukaryotic Cells
- Carbohydrates
- Proteins and Enzymes
- Nucleic Acid Structure and General Features
- Lipids and Biomembranes
- Energy and Metabolism
- DNA Structure and Replication
- Transcription and RNA Processing
- Translation
- The Nucleus and its Functional Domains
- Mutations
- Nucleo-Cytoplasmic Exchange
- Mitochondria
- Endoplasmic Reticulum
- Golgi Apparatus
- Lysosomes
- Actin and Myosin
- Microtubules
- The Cell Cycle and Events of M-Phase
- Genetic Regulation and the Lactose Operon
- Mobil Genetic Elements -- Viruses and Plasmids
- Genetic Engineering and Recombinant DNA Technology
- Sitemap
Proteins and Enzymes
ID #1031
Regarding amino acid R groups, hydrophobic non-polar groups should only have C-H bonds? When the bond contains O, is it polar?
Polarity doesn't come from oxygen, it comes from a difference in electronegativity. Oxygen and nitrogen happen to be highly electronegative atoms, meaning the probability is the electrons (and therefore a partial negative charge) will spend more time around it (the O or N) than around a less electronegative atom covalently bonded to it. Carbon and hydrogen not only have lower electronegativities than oxygen or nitrogen, their electronegativity is about the same. So a C-C bond or a C-H bond will be non-polar, since the electrons are spending about the same amount of time around each atom.
Print this record
Send to a friend
Show this as PDF file
Export as XML-File