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Cysteine sulfinic acid is the 
organic compound
Some chemical authorities define an organic compound as a chemical compound that contains a carbon–hydrogen or carbon–carbon bond; others consider an organic compound to be any chemical compound that contains carbon. For example, carbon-co ...
with the nominal formula HO2SCH2CH(NH2)CO2H . It is a rare example of an amino acid
Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 a ...
bearing a sulfinic acid functional group
In organic chemistry, a functional group is any substituent or moiety (chemistry), moiety in a molecule that causes the molecule's characteristic chemical reactions. The same functional group will undergo the same or similar chemical reactions r ...
. It is a white solid that is soluble in water. Like most natural amino acids, it is chiral, only the L-enantiomer occurs in nature, and it exists as the zwitterion at neutral pH. It is an intermediate in cysteine metabolism. It is not a coded amino acid, but is produced post-translationally. Peptides containing the cysteine sulfinic acid residue are substrates for cysteine sulfinic acid reductase.
Cysteine sulfinic acid is derived from cysteine
Cysteine (; symbol Cys or C) is a semiessential proteinogenic amino acid with the chemical formula, formula . The thiol side chain in cysteine enables the formation of Disulfide, disulfide bonds, and often participates in enzymatic reactions as ...
. Cysteine is formed from cystathionine via the cystathionine gamma-lyase enzyme, and is either broken down by cysteine lyase or cystathionine gamma-lyase or enters the cysteine sulfinic acid pathway where it is oxidized by cysteine dioxygenase to form cysteine sulfinic acid. Cysteine sulfinic acid, in turn, is decarboxylated by sulfinoalanine decarboxylase to form hypotaurine, which in turn is oxidized by hypotaurine dehydrogenase to yield taurine. Proteins containing this residue are found at the active site of some nitrile hydratases.Isao Endo, Masaki Nojiri, b, Masanari Tsujimura, Masayoshi Nakasako, Shigehiro Nagashima, Masafumi Yohda, Masafumi Odaka "Focused Review: Fe-type nitrile hydratase"Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry 2001, Volume 83, Issue 4, February 2001, Pages 247–253.
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