What does it mean for an amino acid to be polar? Please explain what qualities about an amino acid might make the amino acid polar. The disease known as sickle cell anemia is due to a genetic mutation which replaces glutamic acid, a polar amino acid with valine. Please explain how this affects the hemoglobin.

Biochemistry
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ISBN:9781319114671
Author:Lubert Stryer, Jeremy M. Berg, John L. Tymoczko, Gregory J. Gatto Jr.
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What does it mean for an amino acid to be polar? Please explain what qualities about an amino acid might make the amino acid polar. The disease known as sickle cell anemia is due to a genetic mutation which replaces glutamic acid, a polar amino acid with valine. Please explain how this affects the hemoglobin.
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Introduction

Proteins are folded polypeptides. A polypeptide is a polymer of amino acid residues linked via a peptide bond. Amino acids are biomolecules that have an amino group, a carboxyl group and a chemically diverse side group (called the R group) attached to the same carbon called the alpha carbon. As many as 20 different amino acids are commonly found in all proteins. Two amino acids differ from each other based on the chemical properties of the side group attached to alpha-carbon. 

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