also
Posted by anyman on Jun 11, 2002 at 19:25
(61.183.176.201)Re: selenocysteine (mara)
you will find some things very interesting regarding selenocysteine
it is allegedly rare...it is specified by the codon, UGA, which you will recognize usually as a stop codon...not the usual route followed by other *standard* aminos, eh :-)
further info on *standard* aminos...proline is classified among the *standard* aminos but contains a secondary amino group and is therefore technically an imino acid rather than an amino
among the now known 22 *standard* aminos there are at least two that are pushing the envelope (we'll wait on the newest one)...
so...that understood, it is not really unreasonable for texts and articles to refer to **about 20 aminos that are the building blocks of life**
it would just be nice if they would mention the others somewhere in some sense so that more might become aware of the idiosynchracies, subtleties, and nuances :-)