The Amino Acid
Amino acids are organic micromolecules composed of a general carbon backbone that varies in length, a variety of additional carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, a carboxyl group, and the α amino group (H3N+) and R-group. For amino acids, the α amino and R-groups are the most important, structurally. These groups determine whether or not that the molecule in question is actually an amino acid (α amino group) and which amino acid it is (R-group). In the image to the left, this amino acid contains an R-group of a continuous CH2 chain and a tail-end of NH3+, making this molecule Lysine.
In total, there are 22 amino acids, grouped into several different families. These amino acids are Alanine, Arginine, Asparagine, Aspartic acid, Cysteine, Glutamic acid, Glutamine, Glycine, Histidine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Proline, Serine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Tyrosine, Valine, and the two Codon Stop amino acids, Selenocysteine and Pyrrolysine.
Human beings need all 22 of these amino acids in order to produce essential proteins needed to survive. However, an issues arises: humans can only produce 10 naturally (alanine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, proline, serine and tyrosine). The remaining 10 - and in a sense, tyrosine, which can only be humanly produced from phenylalanine - must be obtained from the consumption and digestion of proteins from external sources, such as animal meat.
Amino acids are organic micromolecules composed of a general carbon backbone that varies in length, a variety of additional carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, a carboxyl group, and the α amino group (H3N+) and R-group. For amino acids, the α amino and R-groups are the most important, structurally. These groups determine whether or not that the molecule in question is actually an amino acid (α amino group) and which amino acid it is (R-group). In the image to the left, this amino acid contains an R-group of a continuous CH2 chain and a tail-end of NH3+, making this molecule Lysine.
In total, there are 22 amino acids, grouped into several different families. These amino acids are Alanine, Arginine, Asparagine, Aspartic acid, Cysteine, Glutamic acid, Glutamine, Glycine, Histidine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Proline, Serine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Tyrosine, Valine, and the two Codon Stop amino acids, Selenocysteine and Pyrrolysine.
Human beings need all 22 of these amino acids in order to produce essential proteins needed to survive. However, an issues arises: humans can only produce 10 naturally (alanine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, proline, serine and tyrosine). The remaining 10 - and in a sense, tyrosine, which can only be humanly produced from phenylalanine - must be obtained from the consumption and digestion of proteins from external sources, such as animal meat.