AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Capillary electrophoresis (CE) allows the separation of amino acids without prior derivatization. A derivatization step is often necessary in order to improve the detectability using optical detection.

Detailed explanation-2: -An amino acid is an organic molecule that is made up of a basic amino group (−NH2), an acidic carboxyl group (−COOH), and an organic R group (or side chain) that is unique to each amino acid. The term amino acid is short for -amino [alpha-amino] carboxylic acid.

Detailed explanation-3: -The key elements of an amino acid are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. They are particularly important in biochemistry, where the term usually refers to alpha-amino acids. Amino acids serve as the building blocks of proteins, which are linear chains of amino acids.

Detailed explanation-4: -All amino acids have the same basic structure. Each molecule has a central carbon atom linked together with a basic amino group, a carboxylic acid group, a hydrogen atom and an R-group, or side-chain group.