C-terminal end

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— The C-terminal end (also known as the C-terminus, C-terminal domain or carboxyl-terminus) of a protein or polypeptide is the extremity of the amino acid chain terminated by a free carboxyl group (-COOH).

Each amino acid has a carboxyl group and an amine group, and amino acids link to one another to form a chain by a dehydration reaction by joining the amine group of one amino acid to the carboxyl group of the next. Thus polypeptide chains have an end with an unbound carboxyl group, the C-terminus, and an end with an amine group, the N-terminus.

In molecular biology other proteins often use to bind the C-terminal end of RNAP in order to activate polymerase activity.

The convention for writing peptide sequences is to put the C-terminal end on the right.