BIOMOLECULES AND ENZYMES

Detailed explanation-1: -Amino acids are natural compounds composed of amine (–NH2) and carboxylic acid (–COOH) functional groups, linked to the same carbon atom.

Detailed explanation-2: -When considering the general structure of these molecules, there is a central chiral carbon atom attached with a hydrogen atom at the top, an alkyl group at the bottom, amine group at the right-hand side and a carboxylic acid group at the left-hand side.

Detailed explanation-3: -As it is mentioned above, most of the amino acids that are manufactured today are L-amino acids. This includes glutamate, which is used as an umami seasoning. All amino acids referred to here are L-amino acids, unless we state otherwise.

Detailed explanation-4: -2. All of the naturally occuring amino acids are called L because they have a stereochemistry that was historically correlated with one stereoisomer of glyceraldehyde, shown below. L-Glyceraldehyde and the natural amino acids all have the S absolute configuration. The two exceptions are glycine and cysteine.