Alanine

Alanine
Alanine in non-ionic form
L-Alanine
Names
IUPAC name
Alanine
Other names
2-Aminopropanoic acid
Identifiers
  • 338-69-2 (D-isomer) checkY
  • 56-41-7 (L-isomer) checkY
  • 302-72-7 (racemic) checkY
3D model (JSmol)
ChEBI
ChEMBL
ChemSpider
ECHA InfoCard 100.000.249
EC Number
  • 206-126-4
IUPHAR/BPS
KEGG
UNII
CompTox Dashboard (EPA)
SMILES
Properties
C3H7NO2
Molar mass 89.09 g·mol−1
Appearance white powder
Density 1.424 g/cm3
Melting point 258 °C (496 °F; 531 K) (sublimes)
167.2 g/L (25 °C)
log P -0.68[1]
Acidity (pKa)
  • 2.34 (carboxyl; H2O)
  • 9.87 (amino; H2O)[2]
-50.5·10−6 cm3/mol
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
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Infobox references

Alanine (abbreviated as Ala or A)[3] is an α-amino acid. It has the chemical formula CH3CH(NH2)COOH.

The L-isomer is one of the 20 amino acids encoded by the genetic code. Its codons are GCU, GCC, GCA, and GCG. It is classified as a non-polar amino acid.[4]

L-Alanine accounts for 7.8% of the primary structure in a sample of 1,150 proteins.[5][6] Leucine is the only amino acid which is more common.

D-Alanine occurs in bacterial cell walls and in some peptide antibiotics.

References

  1. ↑ "L-alanine_msds".
  2. ↑ Haynes, William M., ed. (2016). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (97th ed.). CRC Press. p. 5–88. ISBN 978-1498754286.
  3. ↑ Nomenclature and symbolism for amino acids and peptides. IUPAC-IUB Recommendations 1983. Pure Appl. Chem. 56 (5), 1984: 595–624.
  4. ↑ Non-polar: electrons shared so that there is no difference in electric charge between different parts of the molecule.
  5. ↑ Doolittle, R. F. (1989), "Redundancies in protein sequences", in Fasman, G. D. (ed.), Prediction of protein structures and the principles of protein conformation, New York: Plenum, pp. 599–623, ISBN 0-306-43131-9
  6. ↑ Primary structure: the exact specification of its atomic structure and its chemical bonds.