Amino Acids

[John Kuszewski]

In article <1995Jan16.053431.7736 at alw.nih.gov>, bernard at elsie.nci.nih.gov (Bernard Murray) writes:
|> In article <jimgalt-1501951631580001 at pm035-11.dialip.mich.net>, jimgalt at umich.edu (Jim Galt) writes:
|> > I am writing a program to help people remember amino acid structures,
|> > codes, etc. and I was wondering if anyone would like to share their tips
|> > on how to remember which is which. Thank you in advance for your help.
|> > Jim Galt
|> 
|> As far as the one-letter amino acid codes are concerned, the original
|> paper on the nomenclature (which I don't have to hand) gave a logical
|> reason for most of the choices;
|> A, C, G, H, I, L, M, P, S, T, V  are initial letters
|> glu-E
|> F-enylalanine
|> asparageeN
|> R-ginine
|> tYrosine
|> I think W was chosen for tryptophan as the letter is suggestive of the
|> double-ring indole structure.
|> X = unknown

Tom Steitz taught me to remember that W goes with trp by 
pronouncing it "twyptophan".  Perhaps that's even the 
real reason W was chosen!

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John Kuszewski                     ||  |/  /|  ||      
johnk at spasm.niddk.nih.gov          ||  /  /||  ||
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