Alanine acidity

X-alanine, 2-aminopropanoic acid, C3H7NO2, CH3.CH(NH2)C00H. M.p. 297X. One of the amino-acids obtained by the hydrolysis of proteins. 

M.p. 246-250°C (decomp.). A dipeptide present in mammalian muscle. Like anserine it contains the amino-acid -alanine which is not found in proteins. 

All the amino-acids of physiological importance are a-amino-acids, e.g. (in addition to the above compounds), alanine or a-amino-propionk acid, CHaCH(NH,)COOH, and leucine or a-amino-Y-dimethyl-rt-butyric acid, (CH,)aCHCH,CH(NHa)COOH, and naturally occurring samples (except glycine) are therefore optically active. 

Simple esters cannot be allylated with allyl acetates, but the Schiff base 109 derived from o -amino acid esters such as glycine or alanine is allylated with allyl acetate. In this way. the o-allyl-a-amino acid 110 can be prepared after hydrolysis[34]. The Q-allyl-o-aminophosphonate 112 is prepared by allylation of the Schiff base 111 of diethyl aminomethylphosphonates. [35,36]. Asymmetric synthesis in this reaction using the (+ )-A, jV-dicyclohex-ylsulfamoylisobornyl alcohol ester of glycine and DIOP as a chiral ligand achieved 99% ec[72]. 

Aminopropanoic acid known as 3 alanine It IS a p amino acid that makes up one of the stmctural units of coenzyme A... 

Ammo acids with polar but nonwmzed side chains Among ammo acids with polar side chains serine is the smallest it is not much larger than alanine With a —CH2OH side chain serine participates well m hydrogen bonding and often occurs m regions of a peptide that are exposed to water... 

Although all the chiral ammo acids obtained from proteins have the l configura tion at their a carbon that should not be taken to mean that d ammo acids are unknown In fact quite a number of d ammo acids occur naturally d Alanine for example is a constituent of bacterial cell walls and d senne occurs m brain tissue The point is that D ammo acids are not constituents of proteins... 

Thus if a mixture containing alanine aspartic acid and lysine is subjected to electrophoresis m a buffer that matches the isoelectric point of alanine (pH 6 0) aspartic acid (pi = 2 8) migrates toward the positive electrode alanine remains at the origin and lysine (pi =9 7) migrates toward the negative elec trode (Figure 27 3b)... 

IS placed at the center of a sheet of cellulose acetate The sheet is soaked with an aqueous solution buffered at a pH of 6 0 At this pH aspartic acid C ) exists as its — 1 ion alanine as its zwittenon and lysine as its +1 ion... 

FIGURE 27 3 Application of electrophoresis to the separation of aspartic acid alanine and lysine according to their charge type at a pH corresponding to the isoelectric point (pi) of alanine... 

L Glutamic acid is not an essential ammo acid It need not be present m the diet because animals can biosynthesize it from sources of a ketoglutaric acid It is however a key intermediate m the biosynthesis of other ammo acids by a process known as transamination L Alanine for example is formed from pyruvic acid by transamination from L glutamic acid... 

Ammo acid analysis of a certain tetrapeptide gave alanine... 

FIGURE 28 12 Translation of mRNA to an ammo acid sequence of a protein starts at an mRNA codon for methionine Nucleophilic acyl substitution transfers the N formylmethionme residue from Its tRNA to the ammo group of the next ammo acid (shown here as alanine) The process converts an ester to an amide... 

The amino acid transferred to methionine is senne instead of alanine The senne tRNA sequence that is complementary to the UCU sequence of mRNA is AGA... 

A more challenging problem is to find the pH of a solution prepared from a polyprotic acid or one of its conjugate species. As an example, we will use the amino acid alanine whose structure and acid dissociation constants are shown in Figure 6.11. 

Alanine (ala) Phenylalanine (phe) R 1 0 - HNCHC N General formula for an amino acid residue Aspartic Acid (asp)... 

The sequence of each different peptide or protein is important for understanding the activity of peptides and proteins and for enabling their independent synthesis, since the natural ones may be difficult to obtain in small quantities. To obtain the sequence, the numbers of each type of amino acid are determined by breaking down the protein into its individual amino acids using concentrated acid (hydrolysis). For example, hydrolysis of the tetrapeptide shown in Figure 45.3 would give one unit of glycine, two units of alanine, and one unit of phenylalanine. Of course, information as to which amino acid was linked to which others is lost. 

Miscellaneous Reactions. Sodium bisulfite adds to acetaldehyde to form a white crystalline addition compound, insoluble in ethyl alcohol and ether. This bisulfite addition compound is frequendy used to isolate and purify acetaldehyde, which may be regenerated with dilute acid. Hydrocyanic acid adds to acetaldehyde in the presence of an alkaU catalyst to form cyanohydrin the cyanohydrin may also be prepared from sodium cyanide and the bisulfite addition compound. Acrylonittile [107-13-1] (qv) can be made from acetaldehyde and hydrocyanic acid by heating the cyanohydrin that is formed to 600—700°C (77). Alanine [302-72-7] can be prepared by the reaction of an ammonium salt and an alkaU metal cyanide with acetaldehyde this is a general method for the preparation of a-amino acids called the Strecker amino acids synthesis. Grignard reagents add readily to acetaldehyde, the final product being a secondary alcohol. Thioacetaldehyde [2765-04-0] is formed by reaction of acetaldehyde with hydrogen sulfide thioacetaldehyde polymerizes readily to the trimer. 

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