Food Chemistry and Fish in Nutrition

8.1.4.Amino acid pool

Amino acid pool

There is no large reserve of free amino acids in the body, and any amount above that needed for systhesis of tissue protein and the various nonprotein nitrogen-containing compounds is metabolized.  However, in the cellular proteins themselves a metabolic pool of amino acids exists in a state of dynamic equilibrium that may be called on at any given time to meet an appropriate need.