Amino Acid One Letter Codes - Video Tutorials & Practice Problems

Phonetic 1-Letter Amino Acid Codes Concept 1

So in this video, we're gonna take a look at the phonetic, one letter amino acid codes. Now, these are a little bit more challenging than our three amino acid codes because there's a lot more of them. They're gonna rely on phonetics. So here we're gonna say eight out of the 20 of the one letter abbreviations are phonetic in origin. So basically the way we pronounce them in terms of speech will help to dictate the one letter code we use for that particular amino acid. But if you can commit to memory these eight, then it becomes that much easier to remember the one letter codes for all the amino acids. So here we take a look. First one we have is arginine or arginine depending on how you want to pronounce it. So if we were to pronounce this RR Janine, R, Janine sounds like an R. That's why it's one letter code is R next asparagine. If we take a look here, Aparo gene, the N in gene is being hit extra hard. So that's why it's one letter code is N A Sparta acid. So a spar D acid, some people pronounce it that way pronouncing ad instead of A T. So that's why it's one letter code is D glutamic acid. So Mick, so E so what smaller code is? E next we have glutamine. So Q Amine who? Glutamine sounds similar to Q? Toine. That's why it's Q Fennel. Alanine Fennel fennel sounds like an F. So that's why it's one letter code is F Trip the fan. Now, this one is gonna require a little bit of silliness, but just imagine your bugs bunny. So this is an old school character cartoon. How would Bugs bunny? Pronounce? Trip the fan? Well, Bugs Bunny would say tw the fan because Bugs Bunny doesn't really pronounce uh his R's very well. So twit the fan. So we imagine that there's a w here if we're bugs bunny. So the one letter code is W and then here we have Tyrosine th y so here one other Kobe, why remember Ty leads into why a good way for us to remember. This is our memory tool. Nerdy WQ for F. So Nerdy winner qualifies for first. So we took a look at this image. We have a science fair, we have our nerdy winner. It looks like they're qualifying by turning in their science project and we can see that they've gotten a first place ribbon. So Nerdy winner qualifies for first. Nerdy helps us to look at the amino acids. So Nerdy and then winner qualifies for first. So keep this in mind while you're looking at the one letter code for the eight that have phonetic origins.

Amino Acid One Letter Codes Example 1

Which of the following amino acid, one letter symbols is a phonetic origin. Now, we have a memory tool to help us recall the eight out of the 20 amino acids that are phonetic in origin and it is nerdy WQ four F. We're gonna say that these eight letters represent the eight amino acids that are phonetic in origin. And if we look at our options, only option A contains one of these eight letters ee here represents glutamic acid. So we'd say that only option A would have a phonetic origin. E here represents lut Amic acid.

Other 1-Letter Codes Concept 2

In this video, we're gonna take a look at the other one letter codes. Now, remember up to this point, we've discussed the eight out of 20 amino acids that are phonetic in origin, those we've classified in red. So here we see um for example, asparagine, we see tryptophan tyro, those are all in red and they already have their one letter code. Here we have three other groups that we'll talk about. First, let's talk about the ones that are green for these amino acids. We're gonna sit for the amino acids with unique first letters. Their one letter symbol is their first letter. So if we take a look here, cysteine is unique because it is the amino acid with AC. So it's one other code is C, then we have histadine H then we're gonna say next, actually let me just do these in black. So it's easier for us to see. H we have is seen I, we have methionin. So M serene is S and Valle is V. Next, we're gonna say the ones in blue. We're gonna say some amino acids. First letters are not unique but are still used because they are the more common one. So they are more common. So for example, overall leucine is more common than lysine and proteins. So, leucine symbol is L look here, both of them start with L but because leucine is the more common amino acid, it is the letter L later, I will talk about lying. And what letter it uses. If we go to the very beginning, we have alanine, it is a just like the others, but it is the most common of the amino acid. So it gets the A then here, Glycine is G, then we have prolene is P and then three mean is T and then what does that leave us with? Well, that leaves us last with Lyne, the last one, the yellow one. So this last group or last category we're gonna say only a few letters remain in the alphabet. So we're gonna say K was chosen for Lyne since it's the closest to L in the alphabet, right? Because we have KLMM is already be taken up by Methionine. So that leaves us with K. So that's why we use K for lice. Now there's a lot of amino acids, 20 of them. But remember eight of them are phonetic in origin, memorize those. If you remember those, then you just break down the rest into these three categories, the ones in green, they're unique. So their first letter of their name represents the one letter code for them. Then we have the ones in light blue, those, those are the more common one with that particular first letter. So they get to keep it. So lucine gets the L instead of lyne and then lysine is the only one that's unique from everyone else. It is not phonetic in origin and it doesn't use the first letter of its name, it uses K instead, right? So keep that in mind when we're looking at the other one letter code for these amino acids.

Amino Acid One Letter Codes Example 2

Which one letter code is unique in that it is neither the first letter of the amino acid nor phonetic in origin. Remember we've broken down the amino acids into four groups. The first eight, we have to memorize because they are phonetic in origin. After that, we have those in our green group which we say are unique. Their first letter of their name represents their one letter code. After this, we have our light blue group, which is basically the amino acid that's most commonly found. So they get to use the first letter of their name as their one letter code. And then we have the last group. This one here is not phonetic in origin and it doesn't use the first letter in its name. Now be lying. Remember life scenes, one letter code is K. So here the answer would be option C.

Convert the following amino acids into their 1-letter codes: Glycine, Isoleucine, Valine, Tryptophan, Proline.

• A. G, I, V, T, P
• B. L, I, V, Y, P
• C. G, L, V, W, P
• D. G, I, V, W, P