Question

What are amino acids? How does the structure of amino acids allow them to be linked together into long polypeptide chains?

Answer 1

Amino acids are molecules that combine to form proteins. They are the building blocks of life.

Within a protein, multiple amino acids are linked together by peptide bonds, thereby forming a long chain. Peptide bonds are formed by a biochemical reaction that extracts a water molecule as it joins the amino group of one amino acid to the carboxyl group of a neighboring amino acid.