Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: vj_tu on 18/01/2006 16:49:40

Title: How many amino acids exist??
Post by: vj_tu on 18/01/2006 16:49:40

Since I was 16,I had been taught that there were only 20 amino acids on earth,but now I have come across so many others eg. Ornithine and Citrulline.Why these two amino acids are not categorised into any of essential or non-essensial amino acids types??

Title: Re: How many amino acids exist??
Post by: Soul Surfer on 18/01/2006 18:58:08

I am by no means an expert in this area I believe there a great many amino acids that could be made but only a small number of them are used in living organisms to manufacture proteins.  There are also some that are more specific to animals rather than plants and can present dietary problems to total vegans.  In fact healty vegans are probably getting essential amino acids from animal material that they ingest accidentally (like bugs in their food)

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Title: Re: How many amino acids exist??
Post by: chris on 18/01/2006 20:37:25

The classical amino acids are those that are found in proteins and are represented by tRNA molecules.

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Title: Re: How many amino acids exist??
Post by: daveshorts on 18/01/2006 21:27:39

Haven't they recently found a couple of extra ones that occur in strange bacteria which have required the DNA code to be 'hacked' in strange ways to code for them?