This chapter will use information
theory to calculate the information and molecular knowledge in a real protein. The
techniques discussed in this chapter to calculate knowledge are somewhat arbitrary in that
they rely on both math and human insight. Furthermore, the techniques used here to
calculate information differ slightly from those used by other authors. For justification,
interested readers are referred to appendix 2.
For this chapter, a small protein is desirable. Insulin meets this
criteria. Insulin is a special kind of protein known as a hormone. When insulin is
released into the blood stream, it signals cells to take up sugar. The actual hormone
consists of two short chains, A and B. This chapter will calculate the information and
knowledge in both chains. The A chain contains 21 amino acids and the B chain contains 30.
The B chain will be considered first.
The most common sequence for the chain B in mammals is as follows:
phe-val-asn-gln-his-leu-cys-gly-ser-his-leu-val-asp-ala-leu-
tyr-leu-val-cys-gly-glu-arg-gly-phe-phe-tyr-thr-pro-lys-ala
The first question that must be answered is which amino acids are
critical and which ones can be replaced. At several positions in this chain more than one
amino acid is allowed. The number of allowed amino acids at each position is determined by
comparing the insulin found in man to that in pigs, cats, dogs, fish and any other animals
that share the hormone. The next section will illustrate this technique.
next: Conserved Amino Acids
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