Answer: Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.
There are 20 standard amino acids which make up the human and other mammalian proteins. In a protein molecule, amino acids are held together by peptide bond which is formed between -COOH (carboxylic group) of one amino acid and [tex]NH_2[/tex] (amino group) of another amino acid.
They can be broadly divided as-
1) Charged amino acids
2) Hydrophobic amino acids
3) Polar amino acids