Amino acids are the essential building blocks of proteins, which play crucial roles in our bodies, aiding in cell structure, enzyme function, hormone production, and immune defense. There are 20 standard amino acids, divided into 9 essential amino acids that must be obtained from food, and 11 non-essential amino acids that the body can produce. Additionally, there are modified or non-standard amino acids that serve specific functions, but the primary focus remains on those 20 standard amino acids for protein synthesis.
Amino acids are like the building blocks of proteins, which are super important for our bodies! They help make up parts of our cells, speed up chemical reactions as enzymes, act as hormones, and even help fight off germs as antibodies.
There are 20 standard amino acids that our bodies use to create proteins. We can split these amino acids into two main groups:
1. **Essential Amino Acids:** These are 9 special amino acids that our bodies can't make, so we have to get them from the food we eat. They are:
- Histidine
- Isoleucine
- Leucine
- Lysine
- Methionine
- Phenylalanine
- Threonine
- Tryptophan
- Valine
2. **Non-Essential Amino Acids:** These are the 11 amino acids that our bodies can make on their own. So, we don’t really need to get these from our diet. They are:
- Alanine
- Arginine
- Asparagine
- Aspartic acid
- Cysteine
- Glutamic acid
- Glutamine
- Glycine
- Proline
- Serine
- Tyrosine
Besides these standard amino acids, there are also some other special types called "modified amino acids" or "non-standard amino acids." They can help with specific proteins or have unique jobs in our bodies. But when it comes to the main amino acids that build our proteins, we mostly just use those 20 standard ones
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