| Glutamine is an amino acid containing an amide group. It is effectively glutamic acid with the -OH group on its acidic side chain replaced by a an extra amino group.
Like all amino acids, it has an amino group (-NH2) - blue with 2 white balls - at one end, and a carboxylic acid group (-COOH) - grey, connected to red, and red and white - at the other end. These groups are used to link onto other amino acids by peptide bonds. Between these is the a- (alpha) carbon to which the 'R' group is attached. Its 'R' group is -(CH2)2-CO-NH2, an ethyl group with an amide group attached. An amide group is a carbonyl group (-C=O) - grey, with red - attached to another amino group - blue with 2 whites - at the other end of the molecule.
Other informationGlutamine is said to be the most abundant amino acid in the body, yet it is described as a non-essential amino acid because it can be produced by the body from other amino acids.You can move this molecule in 3 dimensions by holding down the left button and dragging using the mouse. If you have a central mouse wheel you can usually zoom the image in/out. Right clicking gives a variety of display options. Simply leaving the mouse pointer over one of the atoms will give information about it; the atom symbol, and some other less useful numerical information. |
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