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There are 20 amino acids commonly found in proteins.
This makes them pretty important in biology, so it would
be useful to be able to learn them easily.
Unfortunately however, they were named on an ad-hoc
basis before their significance was appreciated. Here is a
list:
Alanine,
Arginine,
Asparagine,
Aspartic
acid (Aspartate),
Cysteine,
Glutamine,
Glutamic acid (Glutamate),
Glycine,
Histidine,
Isoleucine,
Leucine,
Lysine,
Methionine,
Phenylalanine,
Proline,
Serine,
Threonine,
Tryptophan,
Tyrosine,
Valine.
You will observe that there are four amino acids
(henceforth: aa) starting with the letter "A" - of which
two start with "Aspar", two aa which start with
"Glutami", two similar names beginning with "L", and
three beginning with "T".
This makes it harder than it need be to learn and
distinguish them, for which there is a significant
opportunity cost.
To add to the confusion, because it's useful to deal with
long chains of aa, they have been assigned official
single-letter codes. Here is a list:
A Alanine
R Arginine
N Asparagine
D Aspartic acid
C Cysteine
Q Glutamine
E Glutamic acid
G Glycine
H Histidine
I Isoleucine
L Leucine
K Lysine
M Methionine
F Phenylalanine
P Proline
S Serine
T Threonine
W Tryptophan
Y Tyrosine
V Valine
This is more sensible, but there is a significant
mnemonic burden in interconverting between the name
and the code.
I propose that each misnamed amino acid be renamed
such that it starts with its IUPAC code, and sounds like it
does.
The initial proposal is:
A Alanine
R Rahginine *
N Nasparagine *
D Daspartic acid *
C Cysteine
Q Quetamine *
E Egglutamic acid *
G Glycine
H Histidine
I Isoleucine
L Leucine
K Klysine *
M Methionine
F Fenylalanine *
P Proline
S Serine
T Threonine
W Whiptophan *
Y Yitrosine *
V Valine
This is actually a fairly minimal set of changes, and
those who have learnt the original names should rapidly
be able to adapt.
Out of an initial screening group of 3 molecular
biologists[1], 100% were strongly in favour.
[1] Includes the proposer.
Table of standard amino acid abbreviations and properties
https://en.wikipedi...ions_and_properties
Includes 1-letter abbreviation column [Loris, Dec 08 2015]
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Annotation:
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Your proposal has been reviewed against the help file and noted as meeting those criterion. |
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" naming - specific names to give to people, pets, restaurants, top level domains, etc. are out of scope for the halfbakery. Whole naming schemes, tools to help with naming or exchange names, and specific names accompanying actual inventions are okay. " |
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So, the official verdict on this idea, summing up all possible amendments, improvements, critiques, and asides, is that it is “okay”. I think we can close comments and move on to the next idea without any further discussion. |
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It'd probly help if you made all the words the same length, as well... and make them all rhyme, too so they can be used in a limerick. |
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// Out of an initial screening group of 3 molecular biologists[1], 100% were strongly in favour. |
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[1] Includes the proposer. // |
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With such a convincing data set, there's no way this idea can be wrong, so we will vote for it [+]. |
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I require a romance novel involving as many of these names
as possible and several improbable sex positions in the form
of a limerick. |
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Said Proline, "A 'Mexican Klycine'
Is supposed to be better than ice-cream."
But the Threonine Spurt
Got him branded Pervert
'Twas disaster! (And tricky to dry-clean.) |
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C'mon Attaturk. Either you're in our you're out. No half measures. Once more, phonetically! |
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Somebody should invent an amino acid and call it
alanine. Oh wait, they did. |
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And there should be one called thylacine. |
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//Somebody should invent an amino acid and call it alanine.
Oh wait, they did.// |
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Hmm. Fixed (in the last two lists), along with some tinkering
with the formatting... |
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This would be totally down to the individuals brain and how they memorise the best. I don't think there is a one size fits all method so this scheme will only fit another group. Those with a great memorising skills/genetics it wouldn't matter. |
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To my eternal shame, I only worked out that
glutamate wasn't just ionized glutamine about 2 years
ago. I mean, there should be a fine or something. Or
maybe my PhD certificate should have points added,
like a speeding offense.... |
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//This would be totally down to the individuals brain and how they memorise the best. I don't think there is a one size fits all method so this scheme will only fit another group.// |
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I disagree. It's not that my proposal switches to a different learning scheme, it just removes the cognitive interference which arises from the current very similar names. |
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//what [8th] said..// You saw it here first. |
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Is Quet pronounced kwet or ket? Because I want to
read it as the latter, and then it overlaps with the
drug. |
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Microbiologists rename things completely every decade or so, old habits / learning be damned. Then they stride about using the new names and raising eyebrows at the plebians talking like it is 1972. |
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I say that biochemists need to grow some hair and do the same. Rename the whole crew appropriately and everyone else get in line. |
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//Is Quet pronounced kwet or ket? Because I want to
read it as the latter, and then it
overlaps with the drug.// |
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I was thinking cuetamine / cute-amine (as in queue)
which is some phonetic distance away
from ketamine. |
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In each case I tried to 'bend' the leading syllable so it
wouldn't overlap with anything, but
may have hit something I either don't know or forgot
about, so no promises. |
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However, I can at least test them via google's magic
DWYM functionality. (In the following list, I use -> to
indicate following the "Show results for <original search>"
link.) |
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Rahginine : Showing results for Arginine -> This page is
top hit.
Nasparagine : Showing results for Asparagine -> About
230 results, I think contractions of N-
asparagine
Daspartic acid : About 456,000 results, but top ones are
contractions of D-aspartic acid
Quetamine : About 557 results (Did you mean: Ketamine?)
Apparently random links to people
who've also made up this word as a song title or handle
etc.
Egglutamic acid : Showing results for glutamic acid -> this
page is top hit, second hit is
mnemonic for glutamic acid.
Klysine : Showing results for Lysine -> About 993 results,
again song title, handles, a stand-in
for epsilon-lysine, a contraction of K-lysine and so on
Fenylalanine : Including results for Phenylalanine ->
...About 46,300 results - apparently this
is Dutch for Phenylalanine
Whiptophan : This page is the top hit (only other hit is a
mnemonic for tryptophan)
Yitrosine : This page is the only hit.
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So I think they're mostly okay. |
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Sorry... what?
You realise that everything up to "I propose" in the idea is introduction and background information, right?
I'm not creating the standard official IUPAC single letter amino-acid codes. |
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In any case, it's unlikely that people dealing with proteins or chemical compounds will mistake Klysine for potassium or vice versa. If we absolutely insisted that everything have a completely unique identification code ... well, I think we'd already be at the point where we'd used up all the short codes in latin, greek and russian alphabets, all easily distinguishable unicode symbols and - even then some would possibly be longer than the words they were replacing.
And physicists would have to hand back the nucleus to the biologists, and so on. |
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Can we rename one Dennis? |
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//I require a romance novel involving as many of these names as possible and several improbable sex positions in the form of a limerick.// |
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Walking along the hall, I found Eggluta apparently leucine through a keyhole. "Egglutamate" I hailed him, what are you serine at?
"Isoleucine at Meth", he said "Methionine in her room, naked. She's a quetamine, and no mistake."
"You incorrigable daspartate!" I shouted, jostling him.
"Stoppit, oh, now she's valine herself."
Meth opened the door, looking very fetching in the nightdress she'd threonine.
"Hello Alan... Eggluta," she proline. "What are you two rahginine about?"
"Would you like to come Alanine?", she held the door open for me, and looked nasparagine at him.
I entered, klysine the door in Eggluta's face, and putting the cysteine the keyhole.
"I'm sorry, I said. I'm not sure how long histidine the door before yitrosine."
She whiptophan nightdress, and glycine her in all her beauty.
"Never mind him", she whispered, as I clasped her close. "I care nothing for him, I only Fenylalanine." |
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Ok, so it wasn't exactly in limerick form, sorry. |
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Someone should re-write one verse of the Elements
song to cover the amino acids. |
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Whiptophan? No, you'll just break the blades. |
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I arst my two bess mates, I did, I says "ere, why don't we take
a perfectly useable list of complicated names and change
them all just a ickle bit, so's we come up wiv a list of perfectly
useable complicated... list of... stuff... and... an' they said:
Thass BRillyant, that iss. I luv, you, yor my bess mate."
We 'ad 'ad a few, by that time, so we might've forgot some
detailsh.
Winnah! Collect ten zillion points. |
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