Biochemistry
Amino Acid
The building block of peptides and proteins — 20 standard amino acids occur in human biology.
Definition
Amino acids are organic molecules containing both an amine (-NH2) and a carboxyl (-COOH) group, plus a side chain that defines each residue. Twenty standard amino acids are encoded by the human genome; several non-standard amino acids also appear in peptides (e.g., D-amino acids, 2-aminoisobutyric acid in CJC-1295).
Related terms
Back to the full peptide glossary.