Differences Between Peptide Bond and Polypeptide

Peptide Bond vs Polypeptide

What is a peptide? What is a polypeptide?

These are probably the basic questions you would ask about when reading about the topic. So to make sure that any reader who has no background of peptides and such would be able to fully comprehend this topic, we will deem to properly define what a peptide bond is, as well as a polypeptide. From there, we shall differentiate both and discuss how this type of information would be beneficial to a layman.

What is a peptide?

A peptide is a short polymer.
A peptide is another name for protein, but is not considered a protein because of its size.
A peptide is a compound that consists of two or more amino acids.
When an amino acid would react to another amino group, it would link to such group, creating a peptide bond. So when you talk about the main link of protein structure, a peptide bond unites such structure.

What is a polypeptide?

A polypeptide is a compound of amino acids that contains ten or more amino acids. If there are more than fifty amino acids, this is now considered a protein.

In summary, here are the differences between a peptide bond and a polypeptide:

Peptides are short polymer linked by peptide bonds.
Polypeptides are continuous and longer peptide bonds with more than fifty monomer units.
Peptides are short, polypeptides are long.

In a nutshell, peptides are generally talked about when discussing chemical composition of our body in terms of proteins, amino acids, and the like. Many consider proteins with polypeptides, but then again, it is only considered a protein if the polypeptide consists of fifty or more amino acids.

How an amino acid or compound is able to link to another is quite fascinating, but is entirely another topic. When you are into body-building or should you be quite concerned about eating right with the types of food that you would incorporate to your new type of diet, learning about peptides would be a good foundation and stepping stone. Then again, peptides and polypeptides are not limited to body-building. Make sure that you understand and are able to differentiate the natural proteins from the peptide proteins that are ‘manipulated’ with the use of chemically enhancing peptides, as these protein peptides work quite differently.

To make another small stab of basic knowledge, when we talk about amino acids, they have a chemical composition. Using glycine and alanine, the simplest amino acids, they can combine together, and when this happens, they produce a dipeptide, meaning the joining of two amino acids. Hence, three amino acids will produce a tripeptide. So if there is more than that, you have a polypeptide. This is where proteins come in the picture, as a longer chain would produce a protein.

Usually a protein chain would have around fifty to two thousand amino acid residues, and we shall be making that distinction because peptide chain is basically what is left when both amino acids combine when water is lost. Hopefully, that simple and basic definition should be easier to understand. Thus, hopefully, the article has properly differentiated a peptide bond from a polypeptide.

Sharing is caring!