This article is about a class of molecules. A representation of the 3D structure of the protein myoglobin showing turquoise α-helices. This protein was the first to have its structure solved by X-ray crystallography. Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or protein energy per gram long chains of amino acid residues.

A linear chain of amino acid residues is called a polypeptide. A protein contains at least one long polypeptide. 30 residues, are rarely considered to be proteins and are commonly called peptides. Once formed, proteins only exist for a certain period and are then degraded and recycled by the cell’s machinery through the process of protein turnover. A protein’s lifespan is measured in terms of its half-life and covers a wide range. Like other biological macromolecules such as polysaccharides and nucleic acids, proteins are essential parts of organisms and participate in virtually every process within cells.

Proteins were recognized as a distinct class of biological molecules in the eighteenth century by Antoine Fourcroy and others, distinguished by the molecules’ ability to coagulate or flocculate under treatments with heat or acid. Proteins were first described by the Dutch chemist Gerardus Johannes Mulder and named by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1838. Early nutritional scientists such as the German Carl von Voit believed that protein was the most important nutrient for maintaining the structure of the body, because it was generally believed that “flesh makes flesh. The difficulty in purifying proteins in large quantities made them very difficult for early protein biochemists to study. Hence, early studies focused on proteins that could be purified in large quantities, e. In the 1950s, the Armour Hot Dog Co.