Amino Acid. Negatively charged at neutral pH. This is also one of the 3 compounds aspartame (nutrasweet) is composed of (the other two are phenylalanine and methanol)

Formula: C₄H₇NO₄
Molecular Weight: 133.10
Structure: (amino acid group)-CH₂-COOH
Three-letter code: Asp
One-letter code: D

A nonessential amino acid which plays an important role in metabolism for the construction of other amino acids and biochemicals in the Krebs cycle.

Biochemicals that are synthesized from aspartic acid include:

• asparagine
• arginine
• lysine
• methionine
• threonine
• isoleucine
• some nucleotides

structural formula for aspartic acid:

 _                         _
|             H   H         | --
|              \ /          |
| O         H   N    O      |
|  \\        \ /    /       |
|   C -- C -- C -- C        |  aspartic acid
|  /    / \         \\      |  C4H6NO4-
| O    H   H         O -- H |
|_                         _|