Tertiary Structure of Proteins
What is the tertiary structure of a protein?
In very general terms the tertiary sructure of a protein
can be thought of as the overall, unique, three dimensional folding of a
protein.
The diagram above represents the tertiary structure of
a protein.
In this diagram you should recoginze the beta pleated sheats (ribbons with arrows) and the alpha helical regions (barrel shaped structures)
.
In addition to these secondary structures, the protein
has additional twists and turns which give the protein its unique shape.
Forces that give rise to tertiary structure
The forces that give rise to the tertiary structure of
a protein are
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