How do you remember the one-letter amino acid abbreviations?

[Gauss44]

How do you remember the one-letter amino acid abbreviations?

This is just for a class, not the MCAT.

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[aalamruad]

15 minutes of Anki

 

[Astra]

15 minutes of Anki

anki is life. praise be

 

[COMED2468]

GAVLIF WHY (like questioning a man named gavlif) STCM (pronounce stick 'em) DNQ (pronounced thank you) PRK (pronounced park).

I kid you not... my friends and I used this, and it has yet to leave my mind. It's grouped according to relative properties of the side chains as well.

 

[Endoxifen]

Go through it multiple times... Most of them are literally the first letter of the AA.

 

[Shammyguy3]

PLIMGAV - non-polar all abbreviations come from the first letter of the amino acid

WYF - aromatic double U "W"= tryptophan (bicycling side chain); Ph sounds like F in phenylalanine; Y for tYrosine

ST NCQ - polar uncharged
"Saint Nick" S, T, C first letter abbreviations from first letter of amino acid; Q = "Que-tamine " sound alike for glutamine; N for asparagiNe

DR HEK - polar charged
Doctor Heck
D Aspartate
E glutamate for those they follow each other in the alphabet

H is histidine (first letter abbreviation)
R is aRginine
K is lysine (k is the letter right before L in the alphabet, must remember L stands for leucine)

So In review

PLIMGAV reads like PLIM- Gav" just a funny word
WYF "wife"
ST NCQ "st nick with a Q instead of K"
DR HEK "Dr heck"

 

[honey0102]

How do you remember the one-letter amino acid abbreviations?

This is just for a class, not the MCAT.

It helped me personally to write things out over and over until it was committed to memory. Saying it out loud might help too

 

[Raryn]

I don't.

 

[Lawpy]

How do you remember the one-letter amino acid abbreviations?

This is just for a class, not the MCAT.

https://www.sporcle.com/games/mitchellduffy/single_letter_amino_acids

https://www.sporcle.com/games/sproutcm/amino-acids-from-structures

 

[aymar]

I made myself several templates that each had either the side chain, three letter code, or one letter code. I printed like a million copies of these and practiced by adding all of elements that were missing (i.e. writing the three letter code and side chain if using the template that already had the one letter code). Repetition will be your friend.

 

[elliejellybean]

There's an app for that

 

[Yorick]

How do you remember the one-letter amino acid abbreviations?

This is just for a class, not the MCAT.

I understood WHY amino acids received their respective one letter abbreviation, which helped immensely for recall when I forgot a code.

For those not sharing the first letter with other AAs, the single code is just the first letter:
Cysteine C
Histidine H
Isoleucine I
Methionine M
Serine S
Valine V

For the "simple structure" and commonly occurring AAs, the code is the first letter:

Alanine A
Glycine G
Leucine L
Proline P
Threonine T

These amino acids codes are based on how the AA is pronounced and the letter that is stressed:

Arginine R . (aRgh)
Phenylalanine F . (Fenyl)
Tyrosine Y (TY)
Tryptophan W (tWrypto)

These AAs are a little more reaching but still have phonetic connections:

Aspartic Acid D (asparDic)
Asparagine N (asparagiN
Glutamic Acid E (Glu is 3 letter code, so GluE)
Glutamine Q (Qtamine)

Lysine K (K is before L)

 

[JustintheDoctor]

You will love the 12 cranial nerves in medical school

I havent had to memorize AAs yet, but if I found CNs easy to memorize(i took 2 anatomy classes) you think ill find AAs easy?

off topic i know lol

 

[COMED2468]

You will love the 12 cranial nerves in medical school

I can't wait. Plenty more terrible acronyms and mnemonics to come!

 

[obhope]

The app called "AA tutor" is all you need to memorize the AA. It's like a game, and actually kinda fun!

 

[Goro]

Q Cute-amine
D Aspar DICK acid
R ARRRRR genine

How do you remember the one-letter amino acid abbreviations?

This is just for a class, not the MCAT.

 

[Funny_Current]

I make studpid associations and it works well for me

• Aliphatic PIVLAG - This is the only one that you just have to say.
• I'm a Sulfuric MC
• ED is Acidic
• AmiNiQ
• HRK is a basic guy
• take a WYF of that aromotic compound
• Hydroxly T'S

 

[WhittyPsyche]

I think this is where chunking is essential.

Anki is great, but I didn't have it when I had to memorize these. What I did was have a flash card, separated the AAs by polar/non polar, charged/uncharged, aromatic, wrote them in their own box.

Then I just memorized the name and letter in each box on my flash card. I also have a bit of a photographic memory so I would try to recall where on the flash card it was located (top right, bottom left, etc) for the grouping then I would "see" the names and letters.


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[Ad2b]

I did this in an artists sketchbook (along with all pathways, chymotrypsin reaction, etc etc etc). Took about 15 minutes. For me, drawing helps me remember; simply burning through flashcards is great but for fitting things together, like Y123N, I can visualize what is happening with the side chains. (and yes, there's a mistake on here - need to redo and re-upload)

 

[mc1214]

Tryptophan say like "twyptophan" to remember the W. For glutamic acid I always say it like glutameec acid to remember that it's an E. Glutamine is a quetamine to remember the Q. Phenylalanine starts with the letter it sounds like it starts with, F. In my head I always say klysine instead of lysine to remember the K. In aspartic acid I emphasize the d at the end to remember it's a D. Arginine I say like a pirate to remember the R. Asparagine I remember because it's three letters code is asn, so I remember the N.

For me it's all about tricking my brain into saying the amino acids a particular way to remember their respective single letter code. You can manipulate the way you pronounce the amino acids to help you remember most of them.


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