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In chemistry, an amino acid is any molecule that contains both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. In biochemistry, this shorter and more general term is frequently used to refer to alpha amino acids: those amino acids in which the amino and carboxylate functionalities are attached to the same carbon, the so-called α–carbon.

An amino acid residue is what is left of an amino acid once a molecule of water has been lost (an H+ from the nitrogenous side and an OH- from the carboxylic side) in the formation of a peptide bond.

Amino acids are the basic structural building units of proteins. They form short polymer chains called peptides or polypeptides which in turn form structures called proteins. The process of such formation is known as translation, which is part of protein synthesis.

Twenty amino acids are encoded by the standard genetic code and are called proteinogenic or standard amino acids. At least two others are also coded by DNA in a non-standard manner as follows:

Selenocysteine is incorporated into some proteins at a UGA codon, which is normally a stop codon.

Pyrrolysine is used by some methanogens in enzymes that they use to produce methane. It is coded for similarly to selenocysteine but with the codon UAG instead.

Other amino acids contained in proteins are usually formed by post-translational modification, which is modification after translation in protein synthesis. These modifications are often essential for the function of the protein.

Proline is the only proteinogenic amino acid whose side group is cyclic and links to the a-amino group, forming a secondary amino group. Formerly, proline was misleadingly called an imino acid.

Over one hundred amino acids have been found in nature. Some of these have been detected in meteorites, especially in a type known as carbonaceous chondrites. Microorganisms and plants can produce uncommon amino acids, which can be found in peptidic antibiotics (e.g., nisin or alamethicin). Lanthionine is a sulfide-bridged alanine dimer which is found together with unsaturated amino acids in lantibiotics (antibiotic peptides of microbial origin). 1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) is a small disubstituted cyclic amino acid and a key intermediate in the production of the plant hormone ethylene.

In addition to protein synthesis, amino acids have other biologically-important roles. Glycine and glutamate are neurotransmitters as well as standard amino acids in proteins. Many amino acids are used to synthesize other molecules, for example:

tryptophan is a precursor of the neurotransmitter serotonin

glycine is one of the reactants in the synthesis of porphyrins such as heme.

Numerous non-standard amino acids are also biologically-important: Gamma-aminobutyric acid is another neurotransmitter, carnitine is used in lipid transport within a cell, ornithine, citrulline, homocysteine, hydroxyproline, hydroxylysine, and sarcosine.

Some of the 20 standard amino acids are called essential amino acids because they cannot be synthesized by the body from other compounds through chemical reactions, but instead must be taken in with food. In humans, the essential amino acids are lysine, leucine, isoleucine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, valine. Histidine and arginine are generally considered essential only in children, because of their inability to synthesise them given their undeveloped metabolisms.

The phrase "branched-chain amino acids" is sometimes used to refer to the aliphatic amino acids: leucine, isoleucine and valine.**

** From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; Retrieved March 10,2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org

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