Hydrophobic Cores

This picture illustrates the hydrophobic core of protein ras p21. The backbone is colored purple, and the hydrophobic residues are colored green. There are van der Waals spheres around these residues, to show the close-packed nature of the core . All the hydrophilic residues in the protein are colored yellow.

(Image courtesy of Simon M. Brocklehurst / smb@bioch.ox.ac.uk )

This partitioning of hydrophobic residues on the inside, and hydrophilic residues on the outside of the protein is typical of globular proteins (Note though, that there a some hydrophobic residues on the surface of the protein).

Author: Tug Sezen