Abstract
Virtanen and Erkama1 discovered recently in B. fluorescens liquefaciens an enzyme which causes hydrolysis of aspartic acid into malic acid and ammonia. This, however, is not the first example of hydrolytic de-amination of amino-acids. In a series of papers2, we have been able to show that in aqueous solution, amino-acids are hydrolysed under the influence of ultra-violet light to give the corresponding hydroxy-acids: R.CH(NH2).COOH→R.CH(OH).COOH. Here again, a certain resemblance exists between enzymatic and photochemical processes.
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References
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WEIZMANN, C., BERGMANN, E. & HIRSHBERG, Y. Hydrolytic De-amination of Amino-Acids. Nature 143, 723–724 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143723c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143723c0
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