In chemistry, a contact number (CN) is a simple
solvent exposure Solvent exposure occurs when a chemical, material, or person comes into contact with a solvent. Chemicals can be dissolved in solvents, materials such as polymers can be broken down chemically by solvents, and people can develop certain ailments fr ...
measure that measures
residue burial in
proteins
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respondi ...
.
The definition of CN varies between authors, but is generally defined as the number of either C
or C
atoms within a sphere around the C
or C
atom of the residue. The radius of the sphere is typically chosen to be between 8 and 14Å.
See also
*
Kissing number
In geometry, the kissing number of a mathematical space is defined as the greatest number of non-overlapping unit spheres that can be arranged in that space such that they each touch a common unit sphere. For a given sphere packing (arrangement o ...
, a similar concept in mathematics
References
Solvents
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