= Alpha-amino acid
An <alpha-amino acid> has amino functionality on the <carbon> next to its carboxyl <carbon>. The skeleton in <amino acid> shows this adjacency explicitly. Numbering the carboxyl <carbon> as C1 makes the adjacent position C2, also called the alpha position. <Nomenclature and Symbolism for Amino Acids and Peptides (Recommendations 1983) by IUPAC-IUB Joint Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature>[3AA-1, Table 1 and its note on hypothetical uncharged formulas; 3AA-2.2.1, acyclic-amino-acid numbering]{ref}
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