title: Poem: A is for alanine.
abstract: The poem below presents a brief review of amino acid abbreviations and structures. Among the featured facts are the following: histidine has a pK(a) close to the normal pH of the cytosol and therefore is an effective intracellular buffer, the R group of isoleucine is hydrophobic, and many protein kinases add a phosphate at the -OH site of tyrosine. This work is just one of many science songs and poems that may be used for educational purposes. A comprehensive database of over 2,000 songs is available online at www.science-groove.org/MASSIVE/.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195. crowther@u.washington.edu.
authors.forename: Gregory J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Crowther