On Wed, 11 Mar 1998, Jonathan Walton wrote:
> Can anyone tell me a generally accepted average value for the % (by
> weight) of carbon in proteins? The value of 15-16% for N is generally
> used, but how about carbon? And (related question that would give the
> answer) is there is a program that will calculate the elemental
> composition of a protein?
> Thanks,
I've only determined the %C for Rubisco (47%) using a C and N analyzer.
The %N was 13%. I'm not aware of any program that would calculate the
elemental composition of a protein after entry of it's amino acid
composition. I have also determined the average %C and %N for the protein
amino acids usually analyzed (asp, glu, ser, his, gly, thr, arg, ala, tyr,
met, val, phe, ile, leu, lys) to be 46% and 14%, respectively. These
average values for the amino acids should be similar to those for many
proteins.
Reno
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Reno T. Nguyen
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory /----\ /-----\ /
Univ. MD Center for Environmental Science / / / /
P.O. Box 38 / /______/ /
Solomons, MD 20688 / / \ /
/ / //
Tel: (410) 326-7261 \_______/ \_______/ \_______/
(410) 326-7409
Fax: (410) 326-7341
E-mail: reno at cbl.umces.edu
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