Essential_amino_acid
An essential amino acid for an organism is an amino acid that cannot be synthesized by the organism from other available resources, and therefore must be supplied as part of its diet.Eight amino acids are generally regarded as essential for humans: tryptophan, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, valine, leucine, isoleucine. Two others, histidine and arginine are essential only in children. A good mnemonic device for remembering these is "Private Tim Hall", abbreviated as: ''PVT TIM HALL''.Which amino acids are essential, varies from species to species, as different metabolisms are able to synthesize different substances. For instance, taurine (which is not, by strict definition, an amino acid) is essential for cats, but not for dogs. Thus, dog food is not nutritionally sufficient for cats, and taurine is added to commercial cat food, but not to dog food.
The distinction between essential and non-essential amino acids is somewhat unclear, as some amino acids can be produced from others. The sulfur-containing amino acids, methionine and homocysteine, can be converted into each other but neither can be synthesized from scratch in humans. Likewise, cysteine can be made from homocysteine, but not from scratch. So, for convenience, sulfur-containing amino acids are sometimes considered a single pool of nutritionally-equivalent amino acids. Likewise arginine, ornithine, and citrulline, which are interconvertible by the urea cycle, are considered a single pool.
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