Signature Assignment 3: Proteins and Biochemistry

1. Tyrosinase is an enzyme that helps convert tyrosine into melanin, the pigment in our skin, hair,
and eyes. This is one of the steps in that pathway. In the chemical reaction below, circle the
reactant, put a box around the product, and draw a star (or asterisk) next to the enzyme.

a. Is tyrosinase being chemically changed during this reaction?

No, tyrosinase is not being chemically changed because it acts as a catalyst .

b. Tyrosinase contains two copper atoms at the active site. Are these copper atoms
considered cofactors or coenzymes?
Cofactors
c. Part of the amino acid sequence of tyrosinase is below. Fill in the table using the provided
amino acid chart (it is on last page of this document).

Trp-Leu-Leu-Gly-Ala-Ala-Met-Val-Gly-Ala-Val-Leu

Ami
no Trp Leu Leu Gly Ala Ala Met Val Gly Ala Val Leu
Acid
Type
of
amin
o acid
(nonp nonp nonp nonp nonp nonp nonp nonp nonp nonp nonp nonp nonp
olar, olar olar olar olar olar olar olar olar olar olar olar olar
polar,
charg
ed
+/-)

a. After filling in the table, do you predict that this region of the enzyme is hydrophilic or
hydrophobic? Why?

Hydrophobic, because nonpolar amino acids are water-repelling.

 Figure by Melissa Hardy, created using BioRender.com

b. Tyrosinase is a membrane protein, meaning part of the enzyme spans a phospholipid bilayer
(see figure below). Where do you think the sequence above is located in the protein?
[extracellular domain/transmembrane domain/intracellular domain]. Explain your reasoning.

Transmembrane

Because hydrophobic amino acids are generally located in the transmembrane domain.

c. Many proteins span the phospholipid bilayer in a α-helix formation. The α-helix is a region of
local structure based on hydrogen bonding. What level of protein structure is an α-helix?

Secondary structure

d. Each amino acid adds 1.5 Å (Angstrom, a unit of measurement equal to 10 -10 meters) to the α-
helix. The phospholipid bilayer of the membrane is about 30 Å thick. How many amino acids
would you expect to be part of the transmembrane domain (the part spanning the
phospholipid bilayer)?

30/ 1.5 = 20

20 amino acids would be part of the transmembrane domain.

e. Imagine a mutation occurred that resulted in an enzyme that was totally unable to bind
tyrosine. If a cat only had this type of enzyme that was unable to bind tyrosine, what do you
think the cat would look like?

The cat would look albino.

2. The biochemical pathway shown below includes the production of eumelanin and epinephrine
from phenylalanine (an essential amino acid).

Figure by Melissa Hardy, public domain

a. Predict what would happen to the levels of each substance if you were to remove the
enzyme AADC (Aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase) from a cell.

Substance Increase/Decrease/Stay the same

phenylalanine increase
might stay the same or increase depending on
tyrosine
the regulation of the enzyme
norepinephrine decrease

epinephrine decrease

L-dopachrome decrease

eumelanin decrease
Adapted from Amino Acids by Dancojocari and used under a CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.