Thread:BastionMonk/@comment-3213993-20150829072907/@comment-1259419-20150829095013

Oh sure. Small side-chains are often added to biomolecules, like DNA and proteins, after their creation to make them more suited for a specific task or environment. The cell often puts methyl- or acetyl groups to DNA. Hydroxyl (OH) is often added to the proline amino acids in collagen to make the protein do its job better. Hydroxylproline is called a non-proteinogenic amino acid just because there is no DNA codon for it. Hydroxylproline is never incorporated into a protein during translation. The hydoxyl group is added after the proteins creation by an enzyme, and can also be easily removed if needed.

Does that make sense?