Answer:
An amino acid has a common skeleton structure; an alpha carbon joined to 4 groups in its four covalent bonds. The groups are a Hydrogen (-H), a Carbonyl (-COOH), an Amino group (-NH3), and a side chain.
The side chains are variable across all amino acids which is the basis for their identification and naming. The side groups have different properties, therefore, giving different amino acid different structures and properties. These properties help in the folding of polypeptide chains into functional protein structures. This is due to their various interactions between the different amino acids that help proteins form structures like disulfide bridges, beta-sheets and alpha-helices.
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