In what manner? Nylon is polyamide - that is, a long chain of subunits of:
H O
| |
N --- C --- (CH2)5
Proteins are long chains of amino acids.
Not at all related, except that they use carbon to make long chains.
Both proteins and nylon are polyamides - each has a carbon with a double-bonded oxygen, a nitrogen, and a carbon attached. The big difference, and the one that I would think makes nylon oligomers relatively indigestible, is that in all proteins the "carbon attached" is itself attached to another nitrogen in the polymer chain. In nylon, it is seperated from that next nitrogen by several carbons (and perhaps some other groups - it depends on which sort of nylon.) Like this, but without a blackboard to make it clear:
Protein: -N-C-C
-N-C-C
-.......
Nylon 6-6: -N-C
-C-C-C-C-C
-N-C-C-C-C-C-C-N-.......
[This message has been edited by Coragyps, 10-22-2003]