Alpha helix - Quiz
  • 1. What is the typical handedness of an alpha-helix found in nature?
A) Symmetrical
B) Left-handed
C) Ambidextrous
D) Right-handed
  • 2. How many amino acid residues are there per turn in an alpha-helix?
A) 4.0
B) 3.0
C) 3.6
D) 5.4
  • 3. What is the translation per residue along the helical axis of an alpha-helix?
A) 1.5 Å
B) 5.4 Å
C) 1.0 Å
D) 0.15 nm
E) 3.6 Å
  • 4. What is the pitch of an alpha-helix?
A) 5.4 Å
B) 1.5 Å
C) 10.0 Å
D) 3.6 Å
  • 5. In an alpha-helix, the N-H group of one amino acid forms a hydrogen bond with which group of the amino acid four residues earlier?
A) C=O group
B) R-group
C) C-alpha group
D) N-H group
  • 6. What is the hydrogen bonding pattern characteristic of an alpha-helix?
A) i + 3 → i
B) i + 5 → i
C) i + 2 → i
D) i + 4 → i
  • 7. The alpha-helix is also referred to as a 3.6 subscript what helix?
A) 3
B) 13
C) 10
D) 16
  • 8. Which software method is used to identify alpha-helices in protein structures?
A) ClustalW
B) BLAST
C) FASTA
D) DSSP
  • 9. What is the hydrogen bonding pattern of a 3-10 helix?
A) i + 4 → i
B) i + 3 → i
C) i + 2 → i
D) i + 5 → i
  • 10. What is the hydrogen bonding pattern of a pi-helix?
A) i + 5 → i
B) i + 4 → i
C) i + 6 → i
D) i + 3 → i
  • 11. What is the approximate sum of the phi and psi dihedral angles in an alpha-helix?
A) -60°
B) -75°
C) -105°
D) -130°
  • 12. Where are the amino-acid side-chains located in an alpha-helix?
A) On the outside
B) Aligned with the helical axis
C) On the inside
D) Within the hydrogen-bonded core
  • 13. Which amino acid, when present in large amounts, can allow for the formation of left-handed helical pieces?
A) Proline
B) Glycine
C) Alanine
D) Leucine
  • 14. What does the 'Christmas tree effect' refer to in an alpha-helix?
A) Side-chains pointing downward toward the N-terminus
B) The vertical distance between turns
C) The rotation angle per residue
D) The branching of hydrogen bonds
  • 15. What is the typical phi-psi angle combination for an alpha-helix?
A) (-90°, -15°)
B) (-60°, -45°)
C) (-105°, -105°)
D) (-70°, -35°)
  • 16. What is an alpha helix?
A) A straight line of proteins
B) A complex fold in tertiary structure
C) A cluster of carbohydrate chains
D) A sequence of amino acids twisted into a coil
  • 17. What is the most common structural arrangement in the secondary structure of proteins?
A) Beta strand
B) Random coil
C) Beta turn
D) Alpha helix
  • 18. Which structural feature of an alpha helix is most easily predicted from amino acid sequences?
A) Hydrophobic core
B) Tertiary folding
C) Local structure
D) Quaternary complex
  • 19. In an alpha helix, what kind of bond occurs between the N−H group and the C=O group?
A) Disulfide bond
B) Hydrogen bond
C) Ionic bond
D) Covalent bond
  • 20. Who showed that moist wool fibers undergo drastic X-ray diffraction changes when stretched?
A) Linus Pauling
B) Herman Branson
C) Robert Corey
D) William Astbury
  • 21. What did Astbury call the extended state of the protein helix when stretched?
A) Beta-form
B) Gamma-form
C) Alpha-form
D) Delta-form
  • 22. Which protein structure did Astbury designate as the alpha-form?
A) The cross-linked globule
B) The stretched flat sheet
C) The unstretched coiled helix
D) The denatured protein
  • 23. When was the modern description of the alpha-helix published by Pauling, Corey, and Branson?
A) 1948
B) 1960
C) 1951
D) 1930
  • 24. Which technique showed that the right-handed alpha helix is the common form?
A) Electron microscopy
B) X-ray fiber diffraction of hair
C) Crystal structure of myoglobin
D) Nuclear magnetic resonance
  • 25. Who was the first to show that Astbury’s models were incorrect because they involved atomic clashes?
A) Maurice Huggins
B) H. S. Taylor
C) Hans Neurath
D) Linus Pauling
  • 26. What did Pauling assume to be true about peptide bonds when modeling the alpha helix?
A) They are planar
B) They are ionized
C) They are circular
D) They are flexible
  • 27. What action did Pauling take in 1948 that led to his model of the alpha helix?
A) He analyzed myoglobin crystals
B) He performed a laboratory experiment with wool
C) He ran a complex computer simulation
D) He folded a paper strip into a helix while in bed with a cold
  • 28. For what was Linus Pauling awarded a Nobel Prize in 1954?
A) The invention of the electron microscope
B) Research into the nature of the chemical bond and structure of complex substances
C) The discovery of DNA replication
D) The development of X-ray crystallography
  • 29. What is the typical length of an alpha helix in terms of amino acids?
A) Exactly twenty
B) About four
C) About ten
D) Over forty
  • 30. Why do short polypeptides typically not form alpha helices in solution?
A) They lack hydrogen atoms
B) They have too many crosslinks
C) They are too hydrophobic
D) Entropic cost is not compensated by stabilizing interactions
  • 31. Which solvent can be added to help oligopeptides adopt stable alpha-helical structures?
A) Trifluoroethanol
B) Pure water
C) Acetone
D) Benzene
  • 32. How do crosslinks stabilize alpha-helical folds?
A) By changing the amino acid sequence
B) By increasing the temperature
C) By attracting more water molecules
D) By entropically destabilizing the unfolded state
  • 33. Which are considered more robust to mutations and designable: alpha-helices or beta-strands?
A) Random coils
B) They are equally robust
C) Beta-strands
D) Alpha-helices
  • 34. Which software is mentioned for generating helical wheels and helical nets?
A) Heliquest
B) PyMOL
C) AlphaFold
D) NetWheels
  • 35. Which tool is recommended for programmatic generation of many helical wheel diagrams in R and Python?
A) helixvis
B) Chimera
C) NetWheels
D) Heliquest
  • 36. What is the primary method for obtaining the most detailed experimental evidence for alpha-helical structure?
A) X-ray crystallography
B) Flow birefringence
C) Infrared spectroscopy
D) Dielectric relaxation
  • 37. What NMR observation is characteristic of alpha-helical turns?
A) Large dipole moment
B) Fluorescence quenching
C) Nuclear Overhauser effect couplings
D) High-resolution mass spectroscopy
  • 38. What physical shape does an alpha helix typically present for detection by methods like flow birefringence?
A) Flat sheet
B) Spherical
C) Prolate or cigar-like
D) Irregular globular
  • 39. Which of these is a popular method for visualizing alpha-helical secondary structure?
A) Ramachandran plot
B) Helical wheel
C) Dot plot
D) Sequence alignment
  • 40. Which amino acid is mentioned as having a high helix-forming propensity?
A) Proline
B) Glycine
C) Alanine
D) Valine
  • 41. Which amino acid is considered to have a poor helix-forming propensity?
A) Leucine
B) Proline
C) Arginine
D) Methionine
  • 42. Why does glycine disrupt alpha helices?
A) Its steric hindrance with the backbone
B) Its positive charge
C) Its high conformational flexibility
D) Its lack of amide hydrogen bonds
  • 43. Where is proline often found in a helix despite its disrupting nature?
A) The middle residue
B) The final residue
C) Every third residue
D) The first residue
  • 44. Which of these amino acids is listed as having high helix-forming propensity?
A) Leucine
B) Proline
C) Glycine
D) Serine
  • 45. What is the primary reason proline is entropically favorable as a helix starter?
A) Ability to donate hydrogen bonds
B) High flexibility
C) Structural rigidity
D) Large hydrophobic sidechain
  • 46. Which amino acid property makes glycine 'entropically expensive' to include in a helix?
A) Low molecular weight
B) Steric hindrance
C) Lack of amide protons
D) High conformational flexibility
  • 47. Besides alanine and leucine, which charged amino acid is listed as having high helix-forming propensity?
A) Glycine
B) Proline
C) Arginine
D) Cysteine
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