Amino Acid Arginine Flag: R Flag or Arg Flag

The flag for Arginine uses the colours red, black, blue and white.  The horizontal stripes along the hoist code to the number 18.  Reason being red is coded to 1 and black is coded to 8 in colour metrics.  The field is blue, so this indicates that Nitrogen is in the R-Group.  Amino Acid R has three Nitrogens in its R-Group.  The four dots also indicate that there are four Carbons on the R-Group.  The position of the dots also indicate that there three of the Carbons are connected while one is on its own.

A team by the name of Ernst & Ernst discovered amino acid R in 1886.  It was discovered in yellow lupin seedlings in Germany.  Since this amino acid had a silvery colour when studied by team Ernst they get it a silver prefix name.  Thus the fun nick names for this amino acid would be:

Silvernine = English
Yinine = Chinese
Kumisnine = Kazakh
Silbernine = German
Platanine = Spanish
Mongonine = Mongolian
Zilvernine = Dutch
Argentinine = French
Srebronin = Polish
Ngeinine = Thai
Chaandeenine = Hindi
Asiminine = Greek
Grumusine = Turkish
Bacnine = Vietnamese
Ginine = Japanese
Euninine = Korean
Hopeanine = Finnish
Ezustnine = Hungarian
Roopanine = Bangla
Zilarranine = Basque
Fidanine = Arabic
Pilaknine = Filipino

Amino Acid Gultamine Flag: Q Flag or Glu Flag

The flag for Glutamine uses the colours red, yellow, purple, and white.  The field is purple since the R-Group has nitrogen and oxygen.  Nitrogen and oxygen are usually represented by blue and red.  But since this amino acid has both the field the mixed hue: purple. The two white dots represent the two carbon atoms as well.

Along the hoist are three stripes: a thick red and purple stripe.  These stripes code to the number 17, which reflects the letter Q, which is the one letter symbol for Glutamine.  The three letter abbreviation is Gln.



 

Amino Acid Proline Flag: P Flag or Pro Flag

The flag for Proline uses the colours red, blue, white, and black.  The white dots represent the number of carbon atoms in the R-Group.  But for Proline a blue dot is included since this amino acid P makes a ring structure with the root group.  Usually only carbons are represented by dots, but since Proline bends back to the root at the Nitrogen atom its gets representation on the field.  Proline is special indeed, it is the only amino acid to do this.

The red and dark blue stripes on the hoist code to the number 16, which represents the 16th letter of the alphabet P, which is one letter abbreviation for the amino acid.  Proline also has a three letter abbreviation: Pro.

Amino Acid P was discovered in Germany in 1900 by of Richard Martin Willstätte.

Amino Acid Pyrrolysine Flag: O Flag or Pyl Flag

The Flag for Pyrrolysine uses the colours red, cyan, green, and white.  This amino acid is not found in humans, but only in prokaryotes.  Since the R-Group has 10 Carbons, there are 10 dot (4+4+2=10).  The field is green since it is in a class of its own.  It has a ring structure, oxygen, and nitrogen. The nitrogens of the R-group outnumber the oxygens, thus it is a green colour rather than purple. The red and cyan stripe related to the number 15 in colour metrics.  And the letter O is 15th number of the alphabet and the single letter abbreviation for this amino acid.

This amino acid was recently discovered in the USA 2002 by Joseph A. Krzychi and Michael K. Chan.  Usually the codon UGA is usually a stop signal for making a protein, but for special bacteria and archaea, UGA codes for amino acid O.  Effectively this newbie amino acid is only 17 years old, as of 2019.  But in the big picture, it is an ancient building block (much older than than the modern human form) that has been used for millions of years by prokaryotes, especially those that make methane. Accordingly when people try to ignite their flatulence, they can thank these microscopic critters that live in your gut. 

Amino Acid Asparagine Flag - N Flag or Asn Flag

The flag for Asparagine uses the colours red, green, white, and purple.  The two white dots represent the number of Carbon atoms in the R-Group.  Since the field is purple this means that the R-Group has Nitrogen and Oxygen.   Reason being Nitrogen is usually represented by the colour blue, as the sky is blue and Nitrogen is the most dominant gas.  Oxygen is associated with red since blood turns bright red when oxygenated.

The two vertical stripes by the hoist are red and green which is colour coded to the letter N, which is the one letter abbreviation for Asparagine.  Asparagine also has a three letter abbreviation: Asn.  Red is coded to 1 and green is coded to 4.  Together they make 14; and N is the 14th letter in the alphabet.

Asparagine was first discovered in France in 1806 by two French chemists: Louis Nicolas Vauquelin and Pierre Jean Robiquet.  As amino acid N suggests it was discovered in asparagus.  Asn was in fact the first amino acid that was isolated.

Amino Acid Methionine Flag: M Flag or Met Flag

The Methionine flag uses the colours red, yellow, black and mustard-yellow.  The vertical stripes along the hoist refer to letter M, which is the single letter abbreviation for this amino acid.   The letter M is represented by red and yellow since these two colours make up the number 13 in colour metrics and M is the 13th letter in the alphabet.  Red is the first colour of the rainbow, so it represents 1.  Yellow is the third colour of the rainbow, so it represents 3.

Methionine has sulfur in its R-Group.  Consequently the field in mustard-yellow.  Pure sulfur power is yellow, and if you ever smelled that rotten egg smell, it is due to this amino acid.  These sulfur amino acids make up proteins in our hair, and if ever got a perm you would have smelled that eggy stink.  It comes about in the breaking of sulfur bonds in ones hair.

Methionine is famous in biology class because the codon is a START signal to create a new protein from the 22 known amino acids; or rather a protein-fairy from the known 22 fairy fibers.  Once the protein (fairy) is finished it will do cellular magic and make life possible.

Amino Acid Leucine Flag: L Flag or Leu Flag

The Leucine Flag uses the colours white, red, orange, and black.  The vertical stripes by the hoist refer to the 12th letter of the alphabet, which is L.  And L is the one letter symbol for Leucine.  Leucine also has a three letter abbreviation: Lys.  Why do the colours red and orange represent L?  Since red is the first colour of the standard rainbow it represents the number 1.  Likewise the second colour of the typical rainbow is orange.  Put them together in colour metrics and they represent 12.

On the field are four dots that reflect the number of carbon atoms in the R-Group, which gives each amino acid its personality.  The pattern is also reflective of L's structure.  The bottom dot represents this amino acids connection to the root of COCON, while the upper part represent the branching pattern outwards.  Note that Hydrogens are ignored in this flag as well.

The primary disease associated with amino acid is Maple Syrup Urine Disease, which is an inherited disease.  People with this disorder can not break down branched amino acids like Leucine, among others.  This can lead to death if not treated properly.  The treatment is a careful diet regulation and ultimately a liver transplant.