Amino Acids and Proteins
Much of the information below is taken from the book (pictured below) God's Crime Scene, by: J. Warner Wallace (a FANTASTIC book - starting on pg. 73).
To check out Wallace's website, go to ColdCaseChristianity.com.
Amino Acids
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.
Chirality (Handedness)
Wallace notes that just as you and I have two hands (one right and one left), amino acids, nucleotide bases, sugars, and other molecules demonstrate similar "handedness."
An object or system is "chiral" if it is distinguishable from its mirror image (and cannot be superimposed upon each other), like the image below (they are opposites).
Proteins (which build the molecular machinery of life and are made up of amino acids) cannot assemble unless their “chiral” amino acids are entirely right-or-left-handed.
Animals and plants use proteins created from the same set of 20 amino acids.
Amino acids (of a single-handedness (homo-chirality)) combine to form a variety of proteins.
Proteins are large macro molecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acids.
These proteins are necessary to build the molecular machinery of life.
Animals and plants use proteins created from the same set of 20 amino acids.
There are 3 main types of proteins: structural, functional (or active), and regulatory (enzymes).
Structural proteins are used to build the structure of the cell.
Functional (or active) proteins carry out important tasks in the cell, such as transporting critical materials.
Regulatory proteins (or enzymes) promote and regulate the chemical reactions in the cell.
In order for life to originate, nucleotides must form from the combination of nucleotide bases, phosphates and sugars.
These nucleotides are formed when 5 nitrogen-based biological compounds are combined with phosphates and sugars.
Cytosine (C), thymine (T), adenine (A) and guanine (G) are found in DNA.
Uracil (U) resides only in RNA.
Nucleotides join together in extremely long chains called nucleic acids.
The most critical forms of nucleic acid in the cell are deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and RNA.
DNA is the largest molecule known.
In humans, DNA contains as many as ten billion atoms.
The adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine bases in DNA are linked in a particular order to form the genetic code containing the master plan for the organism.
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