Tertiary Structure

Introduction to Protein Structure

Tertiary Structure

Tertiary structure refers to the overall three-dimensional structure of a single polypeptide chain. Regions of regular secondary structure (e.g. alpha helicies and beta sheets) "fold up" along with the "randomly" coiled regions into a compact, generally globular structure.

Tertiary structure is stabilized by noncovalent interactions and, in some cases, by covalent disulfide bonds.

Shown below is the tertiary structure of lysozyme. The default is a cartoon view with the alpha helices and the beta sheets color coded.

View:

- all atoms

- backbone

- cartoon

- default

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Bonds:

On Off

H bonds

Disulfide bonds

Color:

- cpk

- by structure

Structure Key:

alpha helix

beta sheet

"random" coil