Human Serum Albumin (HSA)

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I. Introduction

HSA is a plasma protein responsible for the transport of fatty acids throughout the body.  There are a total of 11 distinct fatty acid binding sites.

For more information see Biochemistry Online: Chapter 1B - Lipids in Water


II. General Structure

Wireframe
Backbone
Backbone and sidechains
Cartoon, Hbonds and Wireframe
Cartoon and Wireframe Showing Disulfide Bridges
Cartoon Alpha Helices
Bound with Steric Acid
Color Coded Secondary Structures Bound With Stearic Acid

     HSA is a 585 amino acid residue monomer, with a secondary structure broken into 3 domains, with A and B sub-domains in each domain. Each domain and sub-domain have been color coded as follows: I, red; II, green; III, blue. The sub-domains A and B are coded light and dark shades respectively. 

Domains IIIA and IIIB with stearic acid bound in binding site 5.  Amino residuesTyr401 and Lys525 are in wireframe to show the interaction with head group of fatty-acid.