In this video, we're going to consolidate all of the memory tools for memorizing all of the amino acids. So if you're looking for a good strategy to memorize all of the amino acids, I can recommend 2 things. The first is to continue to watch clutch prep biochemistry videos. The more you watch, the more you'll get a hang of these memory tools. And the second is to get lots and lots of practice. If you print and fill out this particular page and complete it from memory about 3 times or so, you'll start to get a better hang of the memory tools, namely GAVLYMP, which are the non polar amino acids. So, for the non-polar amino acids, the mnemonic is GAVLYMP, where each of these letters represents the one-letter code for all of the nonpolar amino acids. The first one that we have is G, and G stands for glycine, so we can put the one-letter code above. Glycine's R group is so easy that it just glides right on through. It's just one of the easiest ones, so it's literally just a hydrogen. Next, we have Alanine. Alanine's one-letter code is A. Just like A is the first letter of the alphabet and it's easy to remember, Alanine's R group is pretty easy to remember because it's just a methyl group. It's just a simple little CH3. Also, just like A is the first letter of the alphabet, it's the leader for all of the other letters in the alphabet. We can see that Alanine really acts like a leader to a lot of these other amino acid structures. We can see that already when we go to our next amino acid Valine. Valine's one-letter code is V. What we'll see is that Valine is just Alanine with a V shape. So, there's Alanine with these 2 methyl groups coming off of it. Now the next one is Leucine, and Leucine's one-letter code is L. Leucine is really just a loose extension of Valine. So, the structures here are building off of one another. So, Valine built off of Alanine; it's just a V-shaped Alanine. Leucine's building off of Valine, so Leucine is a loose extension of Valine. So, all you need to do to make it a loose extension is just make the chain a little bit longer by adding a CH2. Here's Valine here, just a looser extension of it, with an extra CH2. The next is Isoleucine, and Isoleucine's one-letter code is I. Isoleucine is just an isomer of Leucine, so it has the same number of atoms and types of atoms. They're just arranged in a different way, and the way to remember the arrangement is to remember it's just a lopsided Valine. So, Isoleucine isn't a lopsided Valine. We draw Valine and then t make it lopsided. That is Isoleucine. Now, the next that we have is Methionine, and Methionine's one-letter code is M. Methionine's R group is shaped like an M. So what we could do is just make that M shape. Then, what we know is that at the very end there's going to be a methylthiol group. Methionine, notice that it has "meth" part for the methyl group and "thio" part for the thiol group. It has a methylthiol, and the only way to get the methylthiol is to put the sulfur right here at this position. That is Methionine's R group, and notice it has an M shape, so it goes up, down, up, and kind of right back down. Next is Proline, and Proline's one-letter code is P. Proline's R group looks like the loop of a P. Just like a P, when you draw a P, it has a backbone and then it has a loop. Well, the amino acid backbone kind of goes side-to-side, and then the loop goes like this. Proline's R group is the only one with the loop, so that's how it looks. It also looks like a pentagon because, again, it's going to loop back like this. All that we're seeing here is that they're all CH2. We're going to have a CH2 here, we're going to have a CH2 here, a CH2 here, and then it connects back to that nitrogen. Notice the number of hydrogens on the amino group is one less than all of the other amino acids. It says NH2 here instead of NH3, like all of the other amino acids, because the R group loops back up and connects to the amino group. Let's move on to the aromatic amino acids. There are three amino acids in the aromatic group: Phenylalanine, Tyrosine, and Tryptophan. Our mnemonic is just fat young whippersnappers. For Phenylalanine, its one-letter code is F. Phenylalanine is trying to tell you what its R group is. It's literally Alanine with a phenyl group. So, if we draw an Alanine, remember Alanine up here is just a CH3. We draw in our Alanine, know the number of hydrogens are going to change, it's going to end up being just 2. But if we draw an Alanine with a branching phenyl group, and remember a phenyl group is just a benzene ring, there we go. That's Phenylalanine's structure. Next we have Tyrosine, and Tyrosine's one-letter code is Y. Basically, Tyrosine is feeding off of Phenylalanine. So, the same pattern here where we see things kind of feed backwards, the structures are feeding backwards. Tyrosine is feeding off of Phenylalanine. Really all we need to do to draw a Tyrosine structure is redraw Phenylalanine exactly. So we can draw our CH2, draw in our Phenyl group. There's Phenylalanine, and then Tyrosine is having a hydroxyl group baby, so it's basically just an OH group coming off the bottom, and that's Tyrosine's R group. The last one for the aromatic amino acids is W, and W is for Tryptophan. Let me put a W up here. Tryptophan's R group tries to trip you up, but we have these great memory tools. Tryptophan is just Alanine with 2 joined rings. We know the 2 joined rings, there's a 5-membered ring and a 6-membered ring, and the 6-membered ring is the benzene, but the benzene goes at the bottom, so we're going to draw it last. Tryptophan is just Alanine with 2 joined rings, so let's draw Alanine. Alanine again is CH3, but we know the number of hydrogens are going to change, and it's going to end up being just 2. Then we need to draw our 5-membered ring. There's our 5-membered ring. The next step is to figure out where does the nitrogen go because we know that Tryptophan has a nitrogen atom in it. To remember where the nitrogen goes, you just remember Tryptophan trips on a tripod. What that helps you remember, because a tripod has 3 legs, that helps you remember that there's going to be a 3-carbon start before you actually get to the nitrogen. We count out our carbons; here's 1, here's 2, here's 3; that means our nitrogen must go at this position here. Let's go back and erase these dots, put our nitrogen in here, and then, once we have our nitrogen in, it's figuring out where does the benzene go. We have to remember that the benzene group or the nitrogen is not part of the benzene group, and the benzene has to be below. So because the benzene has to be below, it can't be on either of these two sides. It can't be joined to the ring on either of those two sides, and it can't be on either of these two sides because the nitrogen would be part of the benzene, and the nitrogen cannot be part of the benzene. So then, it has to be that side there. So now we just draw in our benzene, and there's our benzene. Perfect. The very last step is to draw in our double bond, and our double bond does not touch the nitrogen or the benzene, so the only place it can go is here. Then, of course, you fill in the hydrogens at the very end, and that is the structure of Tryptophan. Now let's move on to our polar amino acids, and there are 5 polar amino acids, and the mnemonic to remember them is Santa's team crafts new quilts. The polar amino acids, you think about the North Pole, of course Santa's there, you think of Santa's team. Here we have S, Serine, and Serine just, like alcohol is a serious threat, has an alcohol group. All Serine is is, of course, our leader Alanine coming back into play. Notice that Alanine is the leader for the aromatic groups here, starting the aromatic. Now we see Alanine as the leader for the polar amino acids. Here's Serine and, of course, it's going to be building off of our leader Alanine. So it's going to be Alanine, it's going to be a CH. We know the number of hydrogens are going to change, it's going to end up being 2. Even though Santa and his team know alcohol is a serious threat, Serine and Threonine are going to have alcohols in them, they know that they can have it in moderation while they're crafting these new quilts. We can put Alanine here with an alcohol group. That's all Serine is, is Alanine with an alcohol. Then Threonine is really just building off of Serine's groups. Threonine is T, and what we're seeing is that it's building off of Serine's group. So really, all we need to do to draw Threonine is kind of redraw Serine here. Then all Threonine has is an extra methyl group, it just has an extra methyl group. So if we put in a CH3 over here, then there's only going to be 1 hydrogen. What you can see this is Threonine's R group. Another way to remember Threonine, so its one-letter code is T, another way to remember Threonine is to remember that it has 3 parts on its only carbon. So its only carbon which is here in the center, has 3 parts: a hydrogen, alcohol group, and a methyl group. Crafting, hammer here, which spends a lot of quiet time in the Sistine Chapel, which is a church. Anytime somebody makes a noise, Cysteine is always like shh. You can remember that Cysteine is really just going to be Alanine with the SH group. It's going to use our leader Alanine again. So Alanine, remember CH, we know that the number of hydrogens are going to change, it's going to end up being 2, and it's just Alanine with a group or an SH group, a sulfhydryl group, that's it. That's Cysteine's R group. The next is Asparagine, and Asparagine's one-letter code is N. The N can help remind you guys of the amide group. Just like an N has these 2 parallel lines here, that can help remind you of the double bond in the amide group. So Asparagine is just going to be our leader Alanine again, of course. So it's going to be Alanine, which of course is just CH. We know the number of hydrogens are going to change, it's going to end up being 2. And then it's going to be our amide group, so it's going to be our C double bond O and our NH2, and that's it. That is Asparagine's structure. So you can see we have our amide group, it's Alanine with an amide group. Our next and last polar amino acid is Glutamine, and Glutamine's one-letter code is Q, as you can see here. With Glutamine, it's got that GLUT in it, so it's going to be building off of Asparagine's structure. When you have the GLUT, you're going to have the extra butt section or the extra CH2 group. All you have to do to draw Glutamine is to draw an extra CH2 and you'll have Glutamine's structure. Let's go ahead and draw it in our CH2. We know it's going to have an extra CH2 and then we just draw in our amide. That is it. So you can see we've got our amide here and we've just got an extra CH2. Glutamine's structure is just that right there. Now we're finally into our final and last group, the charged amino acids. The mnemonic is dragons eat, knights riding horses. Remember that the dragons eating things are negative. There's really nothing positive about a dragon trying to eat you. Dragons eating is negative, these are the negative amino acids. D and E stand for Aspartic acid and Glutamic acid. Those are the acidic ones. Dragons, they shoot out fire and acid out of their mouth, so these are the acidic amino acids. Whereas knights riding horses, which stands for Lysine, Arginine, and Histidine, are the positively charged amino acids because riding a horse is very noble, very positive. They're coming to save the day and fight the dragon, so it's very positive. Knights do not spit acid out of their mouths, so they are not acidic, they're going to be basic. For our negatively charged acetic amino acids, the first that we have is D, and D is Aspartic acid, so we can put in a D over here. Aspartic acid is really going to use our leader again all over. Notice that our leader Alanine, which is up here, was used as a leader for Phenylalanine for Serine, and it's going to be used as a leader again down here for our Aspartic acid. All Aspartic acid is Alanine, so we will draw in our CH. We know the number of hydrogens are going to change, so it's just going to be 2. With Aspartic acid, it's going to have a carboxylic acid, so it'll have a C double bond O. Remember that the carboxylic acid is acidic and it can donate a hydrogen, and when it does that, it becomes Aspartate. Let's draw Aspartate here, which has a negative charge on it. You can see we've got our carboxylate group, which is here, and it's just Alanine with a carboxylate group and that's it. That's the structure of Aspartic acid or Aspartate. The next that we have is Glutamic acid. Again, Glutamic acid, one-letter code is just E. Notice that Glutamic acid is really just building off the structure of Aspartic acid because it's got that GLUT in it, and the GLUT means that it has an extra CH2. It has an extra butt section. All we need to do to draw Glutamic acid's structure is to draw an extra CH2. Here's our CH2, we know it's going to have an extra one, and then we draw in our carboxylate group. That is Glutamate's structure, so remember, Glutamic acid when it loses its hydrogen becomes Glutamate. Here's our Glutamate structure and it has a carboxylate group and the extra CH2. So, notice it has just one extra CH2 in comparison to Aspartic acid. That's it for the negatively charged acetic amino acids. Then we move on to our positively charged basic amino acids, and we have t
- 1. Introduction to Biochemistry4h 34m
- What is Biochemistry?5m
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- Review 1: Nucleic Acids, Lipids, & Membranes2h 47m
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- Review 2: Biosignaling, Glycolysis, Gluconeogenesis, & PP-Pathway3h 12m
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- Review 3: Pyruvate & Fatty Acid Oxidation, Citric Acid Cycle, & Glycogen Metabolism2h 26m
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- Review 4: Amino Acid Oxidation, Oxidative Phosphorylation, & Photophosphorylation1h 48m
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How to Memorize Amino Acids - Online Tutor, Practice Problems & Exam Prep
To effectively memorize amino acids, utilize mnemonics like GAVLYMP for non-polar amino acids and "fat young whippersnappers" for aromatic ones. Understand the structures: glycine (G), alanine (A), valine (V), leucine (L), isoleucine (I), methionine (M), proline (P), phenylalanine (F), tyrosine (Y), and tryptophan (W). For polar amino acids, remember "Santa's team crafts new quilts" for serine (S), threonine (T), cysteine (C), asparagine (N), and glutamine (Q). Lastly, "dragons eat, knights riding horses" helps recall charged amino acids: aspartic acid (D), glutamic acid (E), lysine (K), arginine (R), and histidine (H).
Memorizing Amino Acids
Video transcript
Fill-in the missing R-groups for the following peptide from memory: D-I-F-C-R-Q.
Problem Transcript
Which of the 20 standard amino acids can be grouped into the following categories?
a. Contain cyclic/ring structures. b. Sulfur-containing.
Problem Transcript
Fill-in the blanks & R-groups for each of the α-amino acids from memory.
Problem Transcript
Match the amino acid to the type of R-group it has:
Leu ____ 1. Hydroxyl-containing
E ____ 2. Acidic
K ____ 3. Basic
Ser ____ 4. Sulfur-containing
C ____ 5. Nonpolar aromatic
W ____ 6. Nonpolar aliphatic
Problem Transcript
Name the amino acids that contain each of the following in their R-groups:
a) Hydroxyl group: __________________ e) Sulfur atom: __________________
b) 2nd chiral carbon: __________________ f) Amino group: __________________
c) Amide group: __________________ g) Acidic group: __________________
d) Basic group: __________________ h) Aromatic ring: __________________
Problem Transcript
Here’s what students ask on this topic:
What are some effective mnemonics for memorizing amino acids?
Mnemonics are a great way to memorize amino acids. For non-polar amino acids, use GAVLYMP: Glycine (G), Alanine (A), Valine (V), Leucine (L), Isoleucine (I), Methionine (M), and Proline (P). For aromatic amino acids, remember 'fat young whippersnappers': Phenylalanine (F), Tyrosine (Y), and Tryptophan (W). For polar amino acids, use 'Santa's team crafts new quilts': Serine (S), Threonine (T), Cysteine (C), Asparagine (N), and Glutamine (Q). Lastly, for charged amino acids, 'dragons eat, knights riding horses' helps recall Aspartic acid (D), Glutamic acid (E), Lysine (K), Arginine (R), and Histidine (H).
How can I remember the structures of non-polar amino acids?
To remember the structures of non-polar amino acids, use the mnemonic GAVLYMP. Glycine (G) has a simple hydrogen R group. Alanine (A) has a methyl group (CH3). Valine (V) is alanine with a V-shaped extension. Leucine (L) is a loose extension of valine with an extra CH2. Isoleucine (I) is an isomer of leucine, resembling a lopsided valine. Methionine (M) has a methylthiol group, forming an M shape. Proline (P) has a unique loop structure, resembling a pentagon.
What are the one-letter codes for aromatic amino acids?
The one-letter codes for aromatic amino acids are: Phenylalanine (F), Tyrosine (Y), and Tryptophan (W). These amino acids can be remembered using the mnemonic 'fat young whippersnappers'.
How do I differentiate between polar and non-polar amino acids?
Polar amino acids have side chains that can form hydrogen bonds, making them hydrophilic. Use the mnemonic 'Santa's team crafts new quilts' for polar amino acids: Serine (S), Threonine (T), Cysteine (C), Asparagine (N), and Glutamine (Q). Non-polar amino acids have hydrophobic side chains. Use GAVLYMP for non-polar amino acids: Glycine (G), Alanine (A), Valine (V), Leucine (L), Isoleucine (I), Methionine (M), and Proline (P).
What mnemonic can help me remember charged amino acids?
To remember charged amino acids, use the mnemonic 'dragons eat, knights riding horses'. Dragons (D and E) represent the negatively charged acidic amino acids: Aspartic acid (D) and Glutamic acid (E). Knights riding horses (K, R, and H) represent the positively charged basic amino acids: Lysine (K), Arginine (R), and Histidine (H).