How are non essential amino acids synthesized?
There are 20 amino acids that are commonly used as building blocks for proteins. Of those 20, eight are not synthesized by the body and are considered essential. Many of the other non-essential amino acids are synthesized from intermediates of the central metabolic pathways (the reactions to synthesize the amino acids do generally involve a transamination step). For example, 3-phosphoglycerate, an intermediate in glycolysis, can be converted into serine, and serine can be converted into glycine. Because most of these non-essential amino acids are not synthesized from essential amino acids (there are some exceptions like cysteine, however), a deficiency in essential amino acids should not impair synthesis of the non-essential amino acids (unless it gets so severe that there aren’t enough essential amino acids to synthesize the enzymes needed to create the non-essential amino acids).
