Globular protein
spherical ("globe-like") protein; one of the common protein types (the others being fibrous, disordered and membrane proteins); somewhat water-soluble (forming colloids in water), unlike the fibrous or membrane proteins
In biochemistry, globular proteins or spheroproteins are spherical ("globe-like") proteins and are one of the common protein types (the others being fibrous, disordered and membrane proteins). Globular proteins are somewhat water-soluble (forming colloids in water), unlike the fibrous or membrane proteins. There are multiple fold classes of globular proteins, since there are many different architectures that can fold into a roughly spherical shape.
The term globin can refer more specifically to proteins including the globin fold.
Globular structure and solubility
The term globular protein is quite old (dating probably from the 19th century) and is now somewhat archaic given the hundreds of thousands of proteins and more elegant and descriptive structural motif vocabulary. The globular nature of these proteins can be determined without the means of modern techniques, but only by using ultracentrifuges or dynamic light scattering techniques.
The spherical structure is induced by the protein's tertiary structure. The molecule's apolar (hydrophobic) amino acids are bounded towards the molecule's interior whereas polar (hydrophilic) amino acids are bound outwards, allowing dipole–dipole interactions with the solvent, which explains the molecule's solubility.
Globular proteins are only marginally stable because the free energy released when the protein folded into its native conformation is relatively small. This is because protein folding requires entropic cost.
The public source identifies “Globular protein” as spherical ("globe-like") protein; one of the common protein types (the others being fibrous, disordered and membrane proteins); somewhat water-soluble (forming colloids in water), unlike the fibrous or membrane proteins. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Globular, protein and spherical.
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This entry incorporates text from “Globular protein” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.