Tertiary structure

In biochemistry, the tertiary structure of a protein is its overall folding, the shape it has under physiological conditions (e.g., inside a cell). Protein folding is essential for its function as, for example, an enzyme. Bioinformatics tries to find ways to predict the folding from the primary structure. An important type of chemical bond involved in forming the tertiary structure of many proteins is the disulfide bond.

See also: primary structure -- secondary structure -- quaternary structure -- translation