BACKGROUND Gene duplication and the subsequent divergence of paralogous pairs play a central role in the evolution of novel gene functions. S. cerevisiae possesses two paralogous genes (ALT1/ALT2) which presumably encode alanine aminotransferases. It has been previously shown that Alt1 encodes an alanine aminotransferase, involved in alanine metabolism; however the physiological role of Alt2 is...

A-Alanine is rapidly developing as one of the most popular sport supplements used by strength/power athletes worldwide. The popularity of A-alanine stems from its unique ability to enhance intramuscular buffering capacity and thereby attenuating fatigue. This review will provide an overview of the physiology that underlies the mechanisms of action behind A-alanine, examine dosing schemes, and e...

β-Alanine (3-aminopropionic acid) is the only naturally occurring β-type amino acid. Although it not incorporated into proteins, has important physiological functions in metabolism of animals, plants and microorganisms. Furthermore, attracted great interest due to its wide usage as a precursor many significant industrial chemicals for medicine, feed, food, environmental applications other field...

D-Alanine, one of D-amino acids present in the mammalian brain, is a selective and potent agonist at the Nmethyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. Like D-serine, D-alanine is reported to be effective in the treatment of schizophrenia. However, orally given D-alanine is metabolized substantially by D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO), diminishing its oral bioavailability. In this study, we studied the effec...

Alanine racemase, encoded by the gene alr, is an important enzyme in the synthesis of d-alanine for peptidoglycan biosynthesis. Strains of Mycobacterium smegmatis with a deletion mutation of the alr gene were found to require d-alanine for growth in both rich and minimal media. This indicates that alanine racemase is the only source of d-alanine for cell wall biosynthesis in M. smegmatis and co...

By a number of measures, alanine is poised at the threshold between those amino acids that promote the membrane integration of transmembrane alpha-helices and those that do not. We have measured the preference of alanine to partition into the lipid-water interface region over the central acyl chain region of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane both by its ability to promote the formation of...