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From: davison@menudo.uh.edu (Dan Davison)
Subject: Re: Where do herbivores get their amino acids?
In-Reply-To: karl@quercus.gsfc.nasa.gov's message of 14 May 91 14: 28:20 GMT
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Date: Thu, 16 May 1991 03:06:20 GMT

In article <1991May14.102820@quercus.gsfc.nasa.gov> karl@quercus.gsfc.nasa.gov (Karl Anderson) writes:

   Human metabolism can synthesize all but seven (the "essential" amino 
   acids) of the twenty; they must get those seven from their food.
   [..]

Nope, it's nine.  The essential: histidine, isoleucine, leucine,
lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, valine.

The non-essential: alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartate,
cystenine, glutamate, glutamine, glycine, proline, serice, and
tyrosine.

How did you get 7? I don't see any interconversion pathways in humans
listed...perhaps you were counting salvage pathways?

source: Stryer, "Biochemistry", 3d. ed, pg. 578.

I just finished teaching this a few weeks ago!

dan
--
dr. dan davison/dept. of biochemical and biophysical sciences/univ. of
Houston/4800 Calhoun/Houston,TX 77054-5500/davison@uh.edu/DAVISON@UHOU
Disclaimer: As always, I speak only for myself, and, usually, only to
myself.


