Amino acids

amino acid structure

- Chiral carbon which bonded to:

1. Amino group
2. Carboxyl group
3. Hydrogen atom
4. R group side chain
- differ in the side chain
- we have 20 amino acids allocated to 4 types:
1. non polar 9
2. polar uncharged 6
3. polar charged (acidic) 2
4. polar charged (basic)3

non-polar amino acids:

- these are hydrophobic A.A so they will be in the core of a soluble protein on the other
hand they will be on the surface of a membrane protein.
1. glycine simplest A.A
2. alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine (hydrocarbon)
3. methionine (thioester)
4. proline (cyclic pyrrolidine)
5. phenylalanine (phenyl), tryptophan (indole) {both are aromatic}

polar uncharged amino acids:

- these are hydrophilic A.A (the opposite to the above)

1. serine & threonine & tyrosine have hydroxyl group, just tyrosine aromatic
2. cysteine have thiol (SH)
3. asparagine & glutamine have amide group
- they can form H bonds with an oxygen atom
- cysteine can form dislufide bond with another cysteine forming cystine
- cystine is a derivative A.A & it is not common

acidic amino acids:

- aspartic acid/aspartate & glutamic acid/glutamate have carboxyl group

basic amino acids:

- lysine (butylammonium), arginine(guanidino),

histidine(imidazolium)
- histidine the only A.A that can act as a buffer in physiologic
ph (7.4)