The Histidine R Group Buffer System

Pabasara Marasinghe
2 min readApr 26, 2021

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Histidine is an amino acid that helps to protein synthesis. Normally amino acids can act as a buffer because they have -OH and -NH2 sides. At this time I’m not going to write about that because that is a very ordinary thing.

Histidine has a special buffer ability in its R group. Usually, the R group of amino acids not having the buffering ability. That’s why this is a special case.

HIstidine R group status in various Ph values.

Now I’ll do my explanation action using this image.

When ph=0

This is a very very acidic ph value. Now see my highlighted parts on the image above ph value. Both -NH2 groups have taken H+ to control H+ concentration.

When ph=4

You can see in this time two -NH2 groups are in the same condition as before. But the acidity is not greater than before so, -COOH group doesn’t need to bear an H+.

When ph = 8

By the acidity of this solution is lesser than before 2 times. Therefore only one -NH2 is bearing an H+. Rest -NH2 and -COOH are free of H+s.

When ph = 12

This is not an acidic solution at all. This is strongly based. You can see any group of the above is not binding with H+s. All of them are free from H+.

So this special group called Imidazole Functional Group. I think now your problem is over. This is how the R group of Histidine acts as a buffer.

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