Imagine That 1 L of a Solution Containing Each of the 20

question 36

Short Answer

Imagine that 1 L of a solution containing each of the 20 naturally occurring amino acids at 50 mM concentration each (total concentration of 1 M) is allowed to polymerize in a perfectly stepwise fashion such that at each step, a random amino acid can be incorporated into a growing polypeptide. The steps are repeated, until eventually the solution is only composed of 40-mers (and virtually all of the monomers have been used). What fraction of all 40-mers can possibly be present in this solution? Round your number to four decimal places. Avogadro's number is 6 × 10²³.