C-terminus
Sign in to savethumb|500px|A tetrapeptide (example: Valine|Val-Gly-Ser-Ala) with green highlighted N-terminal α-amino acid (example: L-[[valine) and blue marked C-terminal α-amino acid (example: L-alanine).]] The C-terminus (also known as the carboxyl-terminus, carboxy-terminus, C-terminal tail, carboxy tail, C-terminal end, or COOH-terminus) is the end of an amino acid chain (protein or polypeptide), terminated by a free carboxyl group (-COOH). When the protein is translated from messenger RNA, it is created from N-terminus to C-terminus. The convention for writing peptide sequences is to put the C-terminal
Article
11 sectionsContents
- Chemistry
- Function
- C-terminal retention signals
- Peroxisomal targeting signal
- C-terminal modifications
- Prenylation
- GPI anchors
- Methylation
- C-terminal domain
- See also
- References
thumb|500px|A tetrapeptide (example: Valine|Val-Gly-Ser-Ala) with green highlighted N-terminal α-amino acid (example: L-[[valine) and blue marked C-terminal α-amino acid (example: L-alanine).]] The C-terminus (also known as the carboxyl-terminus, carboxy-terminus, C-terminal tail, carboxy tail, C-terminal end, or COOH-terminus) is the end of an amino acid chain (protein or polypeptide), terminated by a free carboxyl group (-COOH). When the protein is translated from messenger RNA, it is created from N-terminus to C-terminus. The convention for writing peptide sequences is to put the C-terminal end on the right and write the sequence from N- to C-terminus.
==Chemistry== Each amino acid has a carboxyl group and an amine group. Amino acids link to one another to form a chain by a dehydration reaction which joins the amine group of one amino acid to the carboxyl group of the next. Thus polypeptide chains have an end with an unbound carboxyl group, the C-terminus, and an end with an unbound amine group, the N-terminus. Proteins are naturally synthesized starting from the N-terminus and ending at the C-terminus.