Come friends, today we are going to tell you about the serine amino acid structure. Scientists found twenty amino acids in the human body that make up proteins. Serine is one of these amino acids. In this article we look at the serine amino acid structure and the facts about it. out of twenty amino acids; Some amino acids that can be synthesized in the human body are called non-essential amino acids. Serine is a non-essential amino acid. The IUPAC name of serine is 2-amino-3-hydroxypropanoic acid. It is a neutral amino acid with amino and carboxyl groups in the serine amino acid structure.
Amino acids are carboxylic acids. These acids generally have two functional groups. One functional group is the amino group and the other functional group is the carboxyl group. Apart from these the amino acid structure has a side chain. It is normally written as ‘R’ in the structure. Serine also contains an amino (-NH2) group and a carboxyl (-COOH) group. Serine has a hydroxymethyl (-CH2OH) group as a side chain. It is attached to the central carbon atom. An alpha (α) hydrogen atom is also present in an amino acid.
in an amino acid composition; If the amino group and the carboxyl group are attached to the same carbon atom, the amino acid is called an alpha (α)-amino acid. Serine is an alpha (α) amino acid. In the serine structure both (-NH2) and (-COOH) groups are attached to the central carbon atom.
Amino acids have both (-NH2) and (-COOH) groups. (-COOH) is an acidic group and donates a hydrogen atom. This hydrogen atom is accepted by the amino group present in the molecule because it has a basic nature. Hence serine a . exists in the form of zwitter ion both with opposite charges.
As a zwitterion ion the molecule of serine has both a positive and a negative charge. The two opposite charges neutralized each other. The molecule as a whole has no charge. It is a neutral molecule.
The ionic form of the zwitter ion of an amino acid depends on the pH of the solution. At a strongly acidic pH (pH < 2), the ion accepts protons from the solution and cation forms are observed. At a strong basic pH (pH>11), the ion donates a proton and ionic dorms are observed.
Both the charges of amino acids are present in the molecule. So serine is a good conductor of electricity for the Zwitter ion structure in the solid phase.
Serine has a hydroxyl group in the lateral chain. For this it is a polar amino acid. It can be soluble in water due to its polarity. The hydroxyl group forms strong hydrogen bonds between the surrounding molecules. This makes the molecule hydrophilic in nature which means it produces a tendency to mix with water.
But serine cannot be soluble in solvents which are not polar, such as benzene, ether etc. Because these non-polar solvents were not able to dissolve the polar hydroxymethyl group or the ionic part of the serine. If a molecule consists of four different groups that coordinate with the central carbon atom; Then the carbon atom is called the chiral carbon centre. This means that the molecule is optically active in nature. It has ‘D’ and ‘L’ structures. These structures are mirror images of each other but are not identical.
Serine has four different groups around the central carbon which are an amino group, a carboxyl group, a hydroxymethyl group, and a hydrogen atom. So the amino acid is the optically active molecule. It has two different structures namely D-serine and L-serine. for the conference; The D-serine molecule has an amino group (-NH2) to the right of the central carbon atom. The L-serine molecule has an amino group to the left of the central carbon atom.
Amino acids are the basic unit in the formation of protein structure. Protein molecules are formed by the addition of amino acids one after the other. The bond formed between two amino acids is called a peptide bond . In a bond formation reaction, one molecule of water is removed.
This association of amino acids occurs systematically. A bond is formed between the carboxyl group of one amino acid and the amino group of another amino acid next to it. A free amino group present on one side of the peptide bond is called the N-terminus of the bond. On the other hand a free carboxyl group is present, this end is called the C-terminus of the bond. For convention, the N-terminus of a peptide bond is written on the left and the C-terminus of the bond is written on the right.
