Tuesday, May 31, 2011

How do biological materials respond to changes in pH?

Not very well. The function of biochemicals relies heavily on pH, because peptides are made up out of amino acids, molecules whose net charges are different in diferrent pH's. As such, a part of protein which might need to cluster closely together for it to function might suddenly have a ton of negative charges when the pH increases, which will repulse each other and cause that part to open up. Moreover, the stability of alpha-helices and b猫ta-sheets will decrease rapidly.



Each protein has an optimal pH. A good example are the digestive enzymes in the stomach, which are active in the low, acidic pH of the stomach lumen, but are quickly inactivated by the basic pH of the duodenum.



Other molecules that will respond to pH are acids and bases, of course - Fatty acids, for example, will likely look slightly different at different pHs, but these changes aren't as large as the ones in proteins.
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