Amino Acids: Polar
The polar amino acids are: cysteine, serine, threonine, asparagine and glutamine.
Cysteine
- Contains a sulfur atom.
- The sulfhydryl group forms disulfide bridges, an important part of the protein structure.
Serine
- Serine is cysteine’s cousin because they are identical except for one atom: it has an oxygen atom in place of the sulfur atom.
- Serine is one of the most commonly phosphorylated amino acids, which makes it very important in the activation and deactivation of proteins.
Threonine
- Threonine has a branch at the beta carbon.
Asparagine
Glutamine
- The carboxamide correlate of glutamate.