The arrangements of amino acids into beta sheets give proteins their strength.

 

The Beta protein strands are often arranged in sheets.

Sometimes the sheets are in barrels like this:

Note: The alpha/beta barrels are usually 8 beta sheets surrounded by 8 helixes.These are particularly interesting for us because the beta sheets have all of the radicals, their side chains, placed inside, making a hydrophobic core. Altogether it is a solid structure. The most active site is placed at the bottom of the barrel.

 

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