Question

When heated, egg white becomes white , solid and opaque. Predict the physical characteristics of fresh egg whites that have been placed in vinegar

Answer 1

So is it the acid will break the bond of the secondary and tertiary structures to primary?

Answer 2

Yup.

Just to be clear, heating the egg white denatures the proteins in it. As they cool, they form bonds with other strands instead of reassuming their initial conformations.

Denaturing in acidic conditions has the same effect on the proteins: denatures them and they form inappropriate cross links and bonds with other peptides.

Clear? ;D

Answer 3

thanks blues, just wondering is there quaternary structures in egg white too?
can tertiary structure be only broken down to secondary but not primary?

Answer 4

The answer to both those questions is "Yes indeed."

Egg white contains many, many different proteins (although a large proportion of the protein is albumin). Some of those proteins exist in multimeric assemblies and denaturing conditions disrupt the non-covalent bonds between subunits just as they disrupt the non-covalent bonds between other residues in each protein.

So in sufficiently extreme denaturing conditions (i.e., soaking it in boiling water, heating on a griddle or infusing with very strong acid), all the non-covalent bonds which impart the secondary, tertiary and quaternary structures are broken.

Sorry for the confusion.

Answer 5

np! thank you so much :)