The primary structure is also known as the
sequence of a
protein. It is the order in which the
amino acids are assembled in order to make up a specific protein. This is the level at which the information is hard coded by
DNA. DNA is
translated through intermediate
RNA to the primary protein sequence. Proteins can be anywhere from ten to thousands of amino acids in length. A protein can be uniquely characterized by its primary sequence. How it gets from an elongated chain of specific sequence to a specific
shape or fold is the issue of intense research in
protein folding. The
Human Genome Project and other sequencing efforts give us information about the primary structure. Since function is really determined by the fold, prediciting structure from sequence is a large priority in the biological community.
See also:
secondary structure
tertiary structure
quaternary structure