Question

Which of the following is a set of essential amino acids?

• A. Glycine, Alanine, Tyrosine, Glutamic acid
• B. Glycine, Alanine, Threonine, Lysine
• C. Tyrosine, Glutamic acid, Valine, Leucine
• D. Leucine, Threonine, Alanine, Tyrosine

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

Glycine, Alanine, Tyrosine, Glutamic acid

Answer 2

Humans can produce 10 of the 20 amino acids. The others must be supplied with food. Failure to obtain enough of even 1 of the 10 essential amino acids, those that we cannot make, results in degradation of the body's proteins muscle and so forth to obtain the one amino acid that is needed. Unlike fat and starch, the human body does not store excess amino acids for later use. The amino acids must be in the food every day. The 10 amino acids that we can produce are alanine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, proline, serine, and tyrosine. Tyrosine is produced from phenylalanine, so if the diet is deficient in phenylalanine, tyrosine will be required as well.

Hence, the correct option is (A): Glycine, Alanine, Tyrosine, Glutamic acid.