Textbook Problem

. Alpha amino acids are organic acid molecules that also happen to contain an amino group (—NH₂) on the second carbon atom of the acid’s chain. Proteins are condensation polymers of such alpha amino acids. The reaction by which the long chain of the protein forms is very similar to the reaction by which nylon forms, resulting in the formation of the linkage

which is called an ‘amide” (or ‘peptide”) linkage. Show how the following two amino acids could react with each other to produce an amide linkage, resulting in the formation of a dimer (a “dipeptide”).

How could this dipeptide then go on to react with additional amino acids to form a polypeptide’?