Molecule Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples - v1.26, by Herong Yang
What Is Amino Acid
This section provides a quick introduction of Amino Acids, which share the sample molecule structure pattern of a carbon center, an amino group, a carboxylic acid group, and a side chain sub-structure.
What Is Amino Acid? - Amino Acids are special molecules that share the sample molecule structure pattern with the following 4 sub-structures:
1. A carbon atom (CH) - The carbon atom bonded with a hydrogen atom represents the center of the amino acid.
2. An amino group (NH2) - The amino group bounded to the central carbon represents the amino part of an amino acid.
3. A carboxylic acid group (CO2H) - The carboxylic acid group bounded to the central carbon represents the acid part of an amino acid.
4. A side group, also called R group, or side chain, - The side group, a sub-structure, bounded to the central carbon represents the functional difference of an amino acid.
For the example, here is an amino acid called Glycine, Gly, or G, which has the simplest structure with a simple hydrogen atom as the side chain.
Table of Contents
Molecule Names and Identifications
Peptide, Peptide Bond, Amino Acid Residues
Protein Visualization - Ribbon Diagram
Composed Proteins or Protein Complexes
wwpdb.org - Worldwide PDB (Protein Data Bank)
Nucleobase, Nucleoside, Nucleotide, DNA and RNA
ChEMBL Database - European Molecular Biology Laboratory
PubChem Database - National Library of Medicine
INSDC (International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration)
HGNC (HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee)