N-terminus

The N-terminus (also known as the amino-terminus, NH₂-terminus, N-terminal end or amine-terminus) refers to the start of a protein or polypeptide terminated by an amino acid with a free amine group (-NH₂). The convention for writing peptide sequences is to put the N-terminus on the left and write the sequence from N- to C-terminus. When the protein is translated from messenger RNA, it is created from N-terminus to C-terminus.