Memorize the 20 amino acids in 20 minutes (Part 1)

In this video we share a method of remembering the structures of the 20 commonly occurring amino acids through tricks involving their single-letter abbreviations. We do not cover any amino acid chemistry in this video (like chemical properties), just the structures. We hope you find it helpful, and if you find any errors or have any suggestions for improvement, please let us know!

Video by Sean Mutchnick, with special thanks to Larry Manders, Erwin Patalinghug and Jovica Veljanovski for 'peer-reviewing'.

[kellyjohn]

I don't know if anyone's commented this one before, but I've found a pretty helpful hint for memorizing Threonine with phonetics. This amino acid has three oxygens and nine hydrogens; so if I'm given the structure and am asked to name what the amino acid it is, I'll count the oxygens and hydrogens in the molecule; it's a bit of a stretch, but I think in my head "THREe Oxygens and NINE hydrogens" (which spells out THREONINE if you use the capitalized letters). Hope this helps someone else as much as it helps me!

[roshansharma]

To memorize the single letter abbreviations for Tyrosine, Tryptophan, and Phenylalanine I think of the song "Young, Wild, and Free" by Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg. The first letter of each of those words represents the three amino acids so Young would be for Tyrosine, Wild would be for Tryptophan, and Free would be for Phenylalanine. Hope this helps and thanks for this video!

[Seenshadow]

List of contents:
Glycine 1:50
Alanine 2:30
Valine 2:45
Leucine 3:08
Isoleucine 3:28
Methionine 3:52
Proline 4:55
Phenylalanine 5:42
Tyrosine 6:25
Tryptophan 7:05
Serine 8:46
Threonine 8:56

[NoahSmith]

This is pretty awesome, I'm having to memorize all of these for Biochem right now. A lot of these helped a lot, so thank you!

[zerberus]

I never comment on YouTube, but this video a blessing! I have always struggled with memorizing dry facts with no apparent "connections", but visually incorporating the amino acid letters makes memorizing surprisingly easy. Thanks for this amazing video and to whomever came up with this brilliant method, it will definitely help me prepare for my medical exams :)

[musicgurl]

I can't thank you enough for making this video. I had a chem exam last Friday where we had to be able to identify residues along polypeptide chains, along with their characteristics, and I thought I would be a goner! I watched this through a few times, and was shocked at how quickly I memorized the structures. It cut my studying time down by a lot, and I sailed through that section on the exam with no problem. Thank

[heatherfitzgerrell]

For anyone who is wondering if this is a good video. It is AMAZING. Even if you are learning the three letter abbreviation instead of the 1 letter it does a FANTASTIC job. I learned 5 at a time and kept rewriting them. All in all it took me a little less than 2 hours to completely memorize them last night. I took hour breaks and STILL remembered them. I woke up this morning and rewrote them all and still knew them! WORTH THE WATCH. ***NOTE: Proline is a little incorrect. When drawing the structure, the original NH3 should "turn into" an NH2. The way I think of it is the tail of the P that the narrator uses to draw the structure actually goes through the NH3 when he draws it and that should cause one of the Hydrogens in NH3 to "splice" off forming NH2 instead.

[eyvaro]

I think this video is really cool. I memorized all structures literally in 40 minutes. Watched it 2 times and drew it all out myself. Amazing. Thanx a lot

[korisx]

So in order to memorise the 20 amino acids we have to memorise them first?

[mavamQ]

Proline (P), P for penta, Penta means 'having 5', and Proline has a 5 member ring.

[singingjewel]

you guys are amazing! it's so cool that you share this with everybody!!
it would have helped me A LOT a few years ago.
thanks, guys!

[maheletdalke]

You are carrying me through my MCAT studying journey ❤️❤️❤️

[googomanpuckyeah]

One of the usefullest videos on YouTube...thanks guys...Post what ever u can...it will somehow help us

[Avoide]

Those two videos are great! After watching them I can already distinguish between them in just 20min :)

[michaelaustin]

Found this extremely helpful. if you pay close attention, literally 20min is all it takes. dont even need to review the video several times.

[serenahigbee]

I remember Serine by relating it to SOH CAH TOA. S has an OH; it's a bit of a stretch but it might help somebody.

[Ambidestrian]

AWESOME! I had these memorized in one run through the video. I tested myself hours later and I just switched up the double bonds on Histidine. Good work!

[lolarambo]

I've watched so many of these videos online and this is the first one that actually worked for me!!! :) THANK

[makischa]

Guys, if I pass my exam it's gonna be all on you and your 2 videos!!!! Thank you soooo much for this! I really appreciate it!

[amybigmac]

this is fantastic! I'm cramming for my first biochem exam tomorrow and this is really helpful-- Thank you so much for making this!