Diamino acid

In chemistry, a diamino acid, also called a diamino carboxylic acid, is a molecule containing at least one carboxyl and two amine functional groups. Diamino acids belong to the class of amino acids.

Biochemical function

Asparagine, glutamine and lysine are proteinaceous diamino acids which are components of proteins. These three diamino acids are coded by codons of the genetic material and belong therefore to the cationic amino acids.

Ornithine and 2,6-diaminopimelic acid are non-proteinaceous diamino acids.

In biochemistry, diamino acids are of particular interest. Diamino acids are used for the synthesis of specific peptide nucleic acids, such as daPNA. Artificial peptide nucleic acids are capable of forming duplex structures with individual DNA- and RNA-strands and are, therefore, not only called DNA-analog, but also they are considered as candidates for the first genetic material on Earth.[1] The corresponding diamino acids such as 2,3-diaminopropanoic acid were detected in the Murchison meteorite [2] and in a simulated comet.[3]

References and notes

  1. ↑ Egholm, M; Buchardt, O; Christensen, L; Behrens, C; Freier, SM; Driver, DA; Berg, RH; Kim, SK; Norden, B; Nielsen, PW (1993). "PNA hybridizes to complementary oligonucleotides obeying the Watson-Crick hydrogen bonding rules". Nature. 365 (6446): 566–568. Bibcode:1993Natur.365..566E. doi:10.1038/365566a0. PMID 7692304.
  2. ↑ Meierhenrich, UJ; Munoz Caro, GM; Bredehöft, JH; Jessberger, EK; Thiemann, WHP (2004). "Identification of diamino acids in the Murchison meteorite". PNAS. 101 (25): 9182–9186. Bibcode:2004PNAS..101.9182M. doi:10.1073/pnas.0403043101. PMC 438950Freely accessible. PMID 15194825.
  3. ↑ Munoz Caro, GM; Meierhenrich, UJ; Schutte, WA; Barbier, B; Arcones Segovia, A; Rosenbauer, H; Thiemann, W; Brack, A; Greenberg, JM (2002). "Amino acids from ultraviolet irradiation of interstellar ice analogues". Nature. 416 (6879): 403–406. Bibcode:2002Natur.416..403M. doi:10.1038/416403a. PMID 11919624.

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.