What is the difference between proteins and amino acids? What is the function of both?
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and proteins are the building blocks of life itself. From what I remember at school, amino acid molecules are joined by peptide links to form the long chain molecules that make up proteins. Proteins form part of cytoplasm, the liquid that fills up most of a cell. Coded messages in a form of DNA called transfer RNA then decide which proteins will be put together to form the various structures in the organism. For example, when a cell divides, each DNA helix within a chromosome splits to make RNA and the split “rungs” attach to certain amino acids to build up the correct proteins to form copy cells.
