Abstract
STUDIES carried out with tracer techniques indicate that α-carbon of glycine gives rise to a single-carbon moiety at the oxidation-level of formaldehyde and this combines with α-carbon of another molecule of glycine to give rise to serine1. However, no free formaldehyde per se but formic acid has been isolated from the reaction mixtures containing liver homogenates, glycine-2-14C or serine-3-14C2,3. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments, compounds of the type of hydroxymethyltetrahydrofolic acid are produced from glycine and serine4,5 and this is strong indirect evidence for the formation of formaldehyde from α-carbon of glycine or β-carbon of serine.
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VOHRA, P., KRATZER, F. Isolation of Radioactive Vitamin B12 from Incubation Mixtures containing Glycine-2-14C and Turkey Liver Homogenates. Nature 185, 45–47 (1960). https://doi.org/10.1038/185045a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/185045a0
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