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