Medical Definition of Alpha helix
1.
A particular helical folding of the polypeptide backbone in protein molecules (both fibrous and globular), in which the carbonyl oxygens are all hydrogen bonded to amide nitrogen atoms three residues along the chain.
The translation of amino acid residues along the long axis is 0.15 nm and the rotation per residue, 100, so that there are 3.6 residues per turn.
This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology
(22 Feb 2008)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Alpha Helix
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