Definition of "amino acid" []

• An organic compound containing an amino group (NH2), a carboxylic acid group (COOH), and any of various side groups, especially any of the 20 compounds that have the basic formula NH2CHRCOOH, and that link together by peptide bonds to form proteins or that function as chemical messengers and as intermediates in metabolism. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This particular string of eight amino acids, taken by researchers from what is known as the “Sm B amino acid sequence” was bound by the autoantibodies of lupus patients."
• "When Harley saw that the sequence of a part of EBV was so similar to the Sm B amino acid sequence, “bells went off in my mind,” he recalls."
• "She showed Harley that this Sm B sequence bore a striking resemblance to an amino acid sequence that researchers had previously identified in the Epstein-Barr virus."