Proteinogenic Amino Acids - Structures

Structures

The following illustrates the structures and abbreviations of the 21 amino acids that are directly encoded for protein synthesis by the genetic code of eukaryotes. The structures given below are standard chemical structures, not the typical zwitterion forms that exist in aqueous solutions.

• -Alanine
  (Ala / A)

• -Arginine
  (Arg / R)

• -Asparagine
  (Asn / N)

• -Aspartic acid
  (Asp / D)

• -Cysteine
  (Cys / C)

• -Glutamic acid
  (Glu / E)

• -Glutamine
  (Gln / Q)

• Glycine
  (Gly / G)

• -Histidine
  (His / H)

• -Isoleucine
  (Ile / I)

• -Leucine
  (Leu / L)

• -Lysine
  (Lys / K)

• -Methionine
  (Met / M)

• -Phenylalanine
  (Phe / F)

• -Proline
  (Pro / P)

• -Serine
  (Ser / S)

• -Threonine
  (Thr / T)

• -Tryptophan
  (Trp / W)

• -Tyrosine
  (Tyr / Y)

• -Valine
  (Val / V)

IUPAC/IUBMB now also recommends standard abbreviations for the one amino acid :

• -Pyrrolysine
  (Pyl / O)