How much do you know about amino acids?


Amino acids are organic compounds containing basic amino groups and acidic carboxyl groups, and the chemical formula is RCHNH2COOH. A compound formed by replacing the hydrogen atom on the carbon atom of a carboxylic acid with an amino group. Amino acid molecules contain amino and carboxyl two functional groups. Similar to hydroxy acids, amino acids can be divided into α-,β-,γ-,w-amino acids according to the different positions of the amino group on the carbon chain, but the amino acids obtained after protein hydrolysis are all α-amino acids, and there are only 22 kinds, these include glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, methionine (methionine), proline, tryptophan, serine, tyrosine, cysteine, phenylalanine, asparagine, glutamine, threonine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, lysine, arginine, and histidine, which are the basic units of proteins. Amino acids are the basic substances that make up the protein needed for animal nutrition. The 21st and 22nd amino acids, selenocysteine and pyrrolysine, encoded by the usual stop codons UGA and UAG, respectively, occur in a small number of proteins.


Previous Page

Next Page

Related News