Nature has devised highly efficient and selective ways of recognizing anionic substrates by using surprisingly few building blocks the most important of which are the amino acids serine, tryptophane, and arginine in addition to NH groups along the protein backbone. Deliberate use of amino acids for the construction of abiotic anion receptors could lead to systems that mimic the anion coordinating properties of anion binding proteins. With this aim in mind several groups have focused their attention on the development of anion receptors containing amino acid building blocks and came up with remarkably efficient systems. This critical review summarizes the different approaches (174 references).