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Chapter 18: Problem 31

What does the expression essential amino acid mean?

Short Answer

Expert verified
An essential amino acid is an amino acid that an organism must obtain through its diet because it cannot synthesize it by itself. In humans, there are nine essential amino acids: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. These amino acids are crucial for proper body functioning, as they are the building blocks of proteins.

Step by step solution

01

Define essential amino acids

Essential amino acids are the amino acids that must be obtained through an organism's diet since the organism cannot synthesize them by itself. They are crucial for the proper functioning of the body, as amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.
02

List examples of essential amino acids

In humans, there are nine essential amino acids. They are: 1. Histidine 2. Isoleucine 3. Leucine 4. Lysine 5. Methionine 6. Phenylalanine 7. Threonine 8. Tryptophan 9. Valine These essential amino acids must be present in an individual's diet, as the body is unable to produce them on its own.

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Key Concepts

These are the key concepts you need to understand to accurately answer the question.

Amino Acids
Amino acids are organic compounds that play a vital role in our bodies. They serve as the building blocks for proteins, much like how bricks are used to build a house. Proteins are essential for nearly every function in our body, from repairing tissues to making enzymes. There are 20 amino acids, but our body can produce only 11 of them.

The remaining nine amino acids are known as "essential" amino acids. This means that they must be obtained through our diet as our bodies cannot synthesize them naturally. Each essential amino acid performs unique functions, making it crucial to consume a varied diet to ensure our body gets all the necessary components for optimal health.
Dietary Nutrients
Nutrients that we derive from our diet are indispensable for maintaining health and well-being. They include carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals, each serving a different purpose. Proteins and amino acids take center stage when it comes to building and repairing body tissues.
  • Essential amino acids are an important part of dietary nutrients because they must be included in the foods we eat.
  • Examples of foods rich in essential amino acids include fish, eggs, meat, soy, and quinoa.
  • By eating a variety of these protein-rich foods, you can ensure a balanced intake of essential amino acids.
A balanced diet that includes these nutrients supports overall body function, strength, and energy levels.
Protein Synthesis
Protein synthesis is the process through which cells create new proteins. This process is vital for cell growth, repair, and maintenance. Simplifying further, it鈥檚 like cooking a meal. Just as you need specific ingredients for a recipe, your body needs amino acids, especially essential ones, to "prepare" proteins.

In protein synthesis, amino acids are assembled into proteins according to instructions encoded in DNA. Essential amino acids contribute to this process by:
  • Acting as the building units.
  • Facilitating the function of enzymes involved in assembling proteins.
Without a sufficient intake of essential amino acids, protein synthesis would be compromised, affecting bodily functions like muscle building and immune response.
Nutrition Education
Nutrition education empowers individuals to make informed decisions about their diets. Understanding essential amino acids and their role in our diet highlights the importance of consuming a variety of foods to cover all nutritional bases.

Key elements of nutrition education include:
  • Learning the sources of essential nutrients like amino acids.
  • Understanding how these nutrients function in our body.
  • Developing skills to create balanced meals that meet dietary needs.
With this knowledge, individuals can better optimize their health by ensuring they receive adequate amounts of essential nutrients needed for their body's daily functions.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Protein molecules are usually quite large and yet often water-soluble. They are soluble in water because they can fold themselves into spherical shapes in which the polar (hydrophilic) side chains are on the surface and the nonpolar (hydrophobic) side chains are buried inside the sphere. Of the amino acids Ala, Ser, Phe, lle, Arg, and Asp, (a) Which would you expect to find on the surface of a water-soluble protein? (b) Which would you expect to find buried deep inside the protein structure? (c) Which might be in either location depending on the solution pH?

What is a peptide linkage?

This polymer is called silicone and has a noncarbon, "inorganic" backbone of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms: (a) Put a set of parentheses around one monomer unit. (b) Another name for this polymer is polydimethylsiloxane. Explain why it has this name.

Amino acids are a sort of self-contradiction because they contain both a basic group (the \(\mathrm{NH}_{2}\) end) and an acidic group (the \(\mathrm{CO}_{2} \mathrm{H}\) end \()\) in the same molecule. Therefore, it should not surprise you that, when dissolved in water, an amino acid can react with itself to form what is known as a zwitterion. Based on this information, (a) Draw the structural formula for the form of the amino acid alanine you would expect to find in a neutral water solution. What is the net electrical charge on this species? (b) Enough concentrated \(\mathrm{HCl}\) is added to the solution of part (a) to make it strongly acidic. Draw the structural formula for the form of alanine you expect to find in this solution. What is the net charge on the alanine? (c) Enough concentrated \(\mathrm{NaOH}\) is added to the solution of part (a) to make it strongly basic. Draw the structural formula for the form of alanine you expect to find in this solution. What is the net charge on the alanine now?

In an amino acid, a carbon atom bound directly to the carbonyl carbon of the acid function is called the alpha carbon \((\alpha\) -carbon \() .\) Draw glycine, point out the \(\alpha\) -carbon, and then explain why all 20 amino acids used to build human proteins are called \(\alpha\) -amino acids. Then draw the simplest \(\beta\) -amino acid.
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