TRYPTOPHAN

Tryptophan

Tryptophan is one of the 22 standard amino acids and an essential amino acid in the human diet, as demonstrated by its growth effects on rats. It is encoded in the standard genetic code as the codon TGG. Only the L-stereoisomer of tryptophan is used in structural or enzyme proteins, but the R -stereoisomer is occasionally found in naturally produced peptides . The distinguishing structural characteristic of tryptophan is that it contains an indole functional group.

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tryptophan

Noun

  1. An essential amino acid having an indole side chain; it is present in many foods, especially chocolate, oats, bananas and milk; it is essential for normal growth and development and is the precursor of serotonin and niacin; any specific form of this compound, or any derivative of it.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: tryptophan
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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