Histidine: An Essential Amino Acid In The Body

Proteins are complex molecules that serve a variety of functions within the body. Proteins are made up of subunits called amino acids. There are several different types of amino acids such as lysine, aspartic acid, and histidine. Each type of amino acids have their own specific group called R-groups attached to them, this causes them to behave chemically different. The group on the amino acid histidine cause the amino acid to be basic; this feature of histidine makes it have a specific purpose in proteins, such as binding other molecules or atoms to a protein and also participating in a catalytic triad. Amino acids are usually put into two different groups, essential and non-essential, and histidine is classified as an essential. The difference between these two groups depend on if the amino acid could be synthesized in the body or not. Essential amino acids are the amino acids that can not be synthesized in the body. There are nine essential amino acids. These are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine (Wax). Since histidine can not be synthesized in the body, other organisms have to synthesis it for humans to ingest …show more content…
There are two different types of organisms that produce histidine, they are plants and microorganisms. Both organisms produce histidine in the same metabolic pathway (Ingle). Histidine are produced by adenosine triphosphate (ATP) donating a carbon and a nitrogen, glutamine and glutamate provide two more nitrogen atoms, and then lastly the phosphorylated monosaccharide 5-phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate provides the last five needed carbons (Pratt & Cornely 485). In order to synthesize, it is estimated that it requires 31 to 41 ATP moles to form one histidine (D'Mello). When plants and microorganisms complete this process, humans can obtain the essential amino acid