Amino acid
Xaa
X
 

Classification and structure of the amino acids

The different amino acids differ in the so called “sidechain” or “R group”. This determines the properties singular to each amino acid: polarity, electric charge, hydrophobicity, volume... It is important to understand these properties since they are the key to the structure and function of a protein.

The diagram groups the proteinogenic amino acids according to several physico-chemical properties. Clicking on the abbreviation for each one you will see its name, its official abbreviations and the three-dimensional model.

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Criteria for this classification

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Ionisation of amino acids

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Beta- and gamma-amino acids