Question

5. Although alpha-helices are common components of polypeptide chains, they need to be of a certain minimum length. To find out how chain length affects alpha-helix formation, you measure the circular dichroism (a measure of helicity) for a series of peptides of increasing length. You find out that there is essentially no helix formation until the chain is at least six amino acids long. Why do you think that is?

Answer 1

Chain length is crucial for alpha helix formation. Because the more the chain length, the more the possible ways to arrange itself through random motions. The number of interactions between the peptide bonds will increase with the increase in chain length.