How in the FSCK are we supposed to memorize all 20 of these?
Here's what I got so far...
[Long-Chain]
Lysine (L for Long, but not shaped like an L like Leucine)
Arginine (arGON further -- even longer -- longest of them all)
[Shapes]
Valine has the 'V' shape at the end
Leucine has the 'L' shape at the end
Alanine has the 'A' shape (more like the peace symbol without the circle around it)
Phenylalanine (Alanine with the lone phenyl group attached at the end)
Serine has the 'S' shape (not counting the carboxylic acid (COOH) group)
Proline has the cyclic nitro group that looks like you could go bowling with it (Proline=Bowling)
[Matched Pairs]
Glutamine (with the nitro group on top) and Glutamic acid (with the alcohol group instead) are pretty much the same.
Asparagine (with the nitro group on top) and Aspartic acid (with the alcohol group instead) are pretty much the same.
(A comes before G, so the A's are shorter than the G's)
[Sulfurs]
Cysteine (S as in Sistine Chapel)
Methionine (only Thiol (-SH) with a Methyl group coming off it)
[Weirdos]
Tryptophan's the only one without a "-ine" ending with the weird double cyclic carbon rings going on, easy enough to remember on sight.
Histidine with the double NH groups on a cyclic carbon ring.
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But how the hell am I supposed to memorize the other 4?
Glycine is the shortest, so that one's pretty easy. Threonine? Tyrosine? Isoleucine? How the hell to tell them apart?
Goddess help me if I have to draw any of these from scratch...
(Why, oh why, did I take organic chemistry as an elective??)
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