Ask A Scientist© Biology Archive

Author:      hillmar
Text:        What is the minimum number of amino acids it takes to form a 
single protein?

Response #:  1 of 1
Author:      Jim Murray
Text:        There are natural dimers of amino acids.  A protein is a chain of 
amino acids of any length.  Sometimes people would rather call short chains 
"polypeptides", but length is relative.  One amino acid would not really be 
called a protein but single amino acids can have natural biological functions 
as well; such as the neurotransmitters, glycine and glutamate.