Question

imagine you are a biologist studying a protein that is involved in memory formation in the brain. in its active form, the protein is phosphorylated. how does the active form of the protein likely differ from the inactive form? select the two best answers.
□ the active form has negatively charged phosphate groups covalently attached to it while the inactive form does not.
□ the active form has a different tertiary structure than the inactive form.
□ the active form has phosphodiester bonds between each amino acid rather than peptide bonds.
□ the active form has a different amino acid sequence than the inactive form.
incorrect

• the amino acids in all proteins are held together by peptide bonds, regardless of whether or not the protein is phosphorylated.

Explanation:

1. For the first option: Phosphorylation adds phosphate groups (negatively charged) covalently to proteins, so active (phosphorylated) vs inactive (non - phosphorylated) differs here.
2. For the second option: Phosphorylation can cause a change in the tertiary structure of a protein, which affects its activity.
3. The third option is wrong because proteins always have peptide bonds between amino acids, not phosphodiester bonds (phosphodiester bonds are in nucleic acids).
4. The fourth option is wrong because phosphorylation does not change the amino acid sequence of the protein.

Answer:

A. The active form has negatively charged phosphate groups covalently attached to it while the inactive form does not.
B. The active form has a different tertiary structure than the inactive form.