A list of tricks to help you remember the amino acids Structures Names (letter code) Aliphatic H H C COOH NH 2 H CH3

C COOH NH 2 Alanine (A) methyl for R, a simple functional group to start just like A (in alanine) starts the alphabet Glycine (G) hydrogen for R, most simple, optically inactive Side chain features/description

CH3 CH3 CH3 CH CH3

H CH C COOH NH 2 H CH2 C COOH NH 2 H Leucine (L) valine extended by one methylene Valine (V) simple again, but shaped like the V in its name

CH3

CH2

CH C COOH CH3 NH 2 Isoleucine (I) lopsided valine....?

COOH N H Proline (P) 3 carbon chain to prolines own nitrogen, structurally special and found in turns

Sulfur-containing H CH3 S CH2 CH2 C COOH NH 2 Methionine (M) special - starts every protein, 3 carbons with a thioether; methyl-blocked sulfhydryl...?

H HS CH2 C COOH NH 2 Cysteine (C) sulfhydryl alanine, reactive, can form disulfides 2001 by Jeff Dahlseid

Aromatic H CH2 C COOH NH 2 Phenylalanine (F) alanine with a phenol group which you KNOW is aromatic, the Y in phenyl can remind you which 3 amino acids with names beginning with T (the Ts) are aromatics H HO CH2 C COOH NH 2 Tyrosine (Y) hydroxylated phenylalanine, one of 3 Ts that has Y in its name so it is an aromatic

H CH2 C COOH NH 2 N H Tryptophan (W) one of 3 Ts with a Y so it is aromatic, will tryp you up because it is hard to remember, has a 3 carbon start to N (or indole ring on methylene)

Aliphatic hydroxyl H HO CH2 C COOH NH 2 OH H CH3 C H C COOH NH 2 Threonine (T) one of 3 Ts, without Y so aliphatic (also its symbol is the first letter of its name like the other aliphatics), its threo parts are methyl, hydroxyl, and hydrogen on a single C Serine (S) hydroxyl alanine

2001 by Jeff Dahlseid

Acidic - negative charges OC O CH2 H C COOH NH 2 Aspartate (D) carboxyl alanine with acidic nature noted by suffix ate, the alphabetical ordering of the first letter of their names correlates with an increase in length of side chain

OC O

H CH2 CH2 C COOH NH 2 Glutamate (E) aspartate plus one methylene, G is after A

Basic - positive charges H NH 2 C NH NH 2

+

(CH2 )3

C COOH NH 2 Arginine (R) 3 carbon chain linked to a C full of only Ns (no Hs & C has 4 bonds) through an N

H
+

NH 3

(CH2 )4

C COOH NH 2 Lysine (K) 3 carbon chain plus one methylene to amino, it lies (Lys) about the 3 carbon trend

+H

N N H CH2

H C COOH NH 2 Histidine (H) 3 carbons to N and loop back through C n N

Amide derivatives of acids - loose OH for NH2 to loose charge NH 2 C O NH 2 C O CH2 CH2 CH2 H C COOH NH 2 H C COOH NH 2 Glutamine (Q) amide derivative of glutamate Asparagine (N) amide derivative of aspartate

For 3-D visualization, see: http://chemistry.gsu.edu/glactone/PDB/Amino_Acids/aa.html For RasMol download, see: http://www.umass.edu/microbio/rasmol/

2001 by Jeff Dahlseid