Nomenclature and Symbolism for Amino Acids and Peptides

The recommendations in this version are identical to those in the published document, [see Biochem. J., 1984, 219, 345-373; Eur. J. Biochem., 1984, 138, 9-37; 1985, 152, 1; 1993, 213, 2; Internat. J. Pept. Prot. Res., 1984, 24, following p 84; J. Biol. Chem., 1985, 260,14-42; Pure Appl. Chem., 1984, 56, 595-624; Amino Acids and Peptides, 1985, 16, 387-410; Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents, 2nd edition, Portland Press, 1992, pages 39-69; Copyright IUBMB and IUPAC]. Any comments, corrections or suggestions for a future edition should be e-mailed to g.p.moss@qmul.ac.uk or any other member of the Committee. A PDF of the printed version is available.

The text of this document was created in an electronic form by optical character reading the published version. In setting up the World Wide Web version corrections, both previously published ones and those detected in this exercise have been made. The changes have been marked by which is a link to details of the change and where it applies. For problems in converting the text into a World Wide Web version see the IUPAC home page. Any additional corrections and errors arising from the OCR input please e-mail to g.p.moss@qmul.ac.uk

In order to prepare the World Wide Web version the text has been divided into the following sections.

• Contents with full details of sub-sections
• Introduction
  Part 1, NOMENCLATURE
  Part 1, Section A: Amino-Acid Nomenclature
• 3AA-1 and 3AA-2
  3AA-1 Names of Common α-Amino Acids
  3AA-2 Formation of Semisystematic Names for Amino Acids and Derivatives
• 3AA-3 to 3AA-5
  3AA-3 Configuration at the α-Carbon Atom
  3AA-4 Configuration at Centres other than the α-Carbon Atom
  3AA-5 Optical Rotation
• 3AA-6 to 3AA-10
  Part 1, Section B: Nomenclature of Non-Peptide Derivatives of Amino Acids
  3AA-6 Ionization of Functional Groups and Naming of Salts
  3AA-7 Amino Acids Substituted on Nitrogen
  3AA-8 Side Chain Modifications (excluding modifications of carboxyl or nitrogen)
  3AA-9 Esters and Amides of the Carboxyl Group
  3AA-10 Carboxyl Group Modifications other than Ester and Amide Formation
• 3AA-11 to 3AA-13
  Part 1, Section C: Peptide Nomenclature
  3AA-11 Definitions of Peptides
  3AA-12 Amino-Acid Residues
  3AA-13 The Naming of Peptides
  Part 2, SYMBOLISM
  Part 2, Section A: The Three-Letter System
• 3AA-14 to 3AA-16
  3AA-14 General Considerations on Three-Letter Symbols
  3AA-15 Symbols for Amino Acids
  3AA-16 Symbolism of Amino-Acid Residues
• 3AA-17 Substituted Amino Acids
  
• 3AA-18 and 3AA-19
  3AA-18 Symbols for Substituents
  3AA-19 Peptide Symbolism
• 3AA-20 to 3AA-21
  Part 2, Section B: The One-Letter System
  3AA-20 The Need for a Concise Representation of Sequence
  3AA-21 Description of the One-Letter System
• Part 3, MODIFICATION OF NAMED PEPTIDES
  3AA-22 Names and Symbols for Derivatives of Named Peptides
  
• References
• Appendix. Amino Acids with Trivial Names
• Addenda

This document has been reprinted in a number of places. A full list is as follows: Biochem. J., 1984, 219, 345-373; Eur. J. Biochem., 1984, 138, 9-37; 1985, 152, 1; Internat. J. Pept. Prot. Res., 1984, 24, following p 84; J. Biol. Chem., 1985, 260, 14-42; Pure Appl. Chem., 1984, 56, 595-624; Amino Acids and Peptides, 1985, 16, 387-410; and in Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents, 2nd edition, Portland Press, 1992, pp 39-67.

Extensions to the rules were published in the JCBN/NC-IUB Newsletter 1985, 1986, 1989; see Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents, 2nd edition, Portland Press, 1992, pp 68-69.

These recommendations were prepared by the IUPAC-IUB Joint Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature (JCBN), whose members were H. B. F. Dixon (chairman), A. Cornish-Bowden (secretary), C. Liébecq (as chairman of the IUB Committee of Editors of Biochemical Journals), K. L. Loening, G. P. Moss, J. Reedijk, S. F. Velick, and J. F. G. Vliegenthart. JCBN thanks many who helped with drawing up the recommendations, especially P. Karlson, its former chairman, B. Keil, a former member of the Nomenclature Committee of IUB(NC-IUB), other members and former members of NC-IUB, namely H. Bielka, N. Sharon and E. C. Webb, and also W. E. Cohn, J. T. Edsall, J. S. Morley, G. T. Young, and members of the IUPAC Commission on Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry (CNOC).

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