How much do we need to know about amino acids? polar/non polar, charges, structures? I know essential v non essential but anything else you think is key? Thanks.
Maybe the transport? Also, I'd know which neurotransmitters come from which AA precursors (e.g. tryptophan --> serotonin, tyrosine --> monoamines, etc.).
Remember that the transporter I like to call the
RoCK transporter (arginine, ornithine, cysteine, lysine) is messed up in cystinuria, and a defective tryptophan transporter can cause pellagra (Hartnup's).
Know that arginine and lysine are positively charged, histidine is neutral at physiological pH, and glutamate and aspartate are negatively charged. Also, the branched amino acids are leucine, isoleucine, and valine (relevant to maple syrup urine disease). The only purely ketogenic amino acids are leucine and lysine.
I think if it's more specific that than, you can tell the question writers to shove it up their asses.
I haven't taken the test yet, but I'm not going to memorize amino acid stuff much beyond what I said above.
edit: oh yeah don't forget about phenylketonuria; tyrosine becomes essential.
Know that gly-X-Y is the collagen AA sequence, so glycine is the most abundant AA in collagen. Histones have a bunch of argininine/lysine to bind negatively charged DNA.
