Tartronic acid semialdehyde 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 formula OCHCH(OH)CO₂H. The molecule has three functional groups, aldehyde, alcohol, and carboxylic acid. A white solid, it occurs naturally. At near neutral pH, it exists as the hydrated carboxylate (HO)₂CHCH(OH)CO₂⁻, which is referred to as tartronate semialdehyde. Tartronate semialdehyde is produced and consumed on a prodigious scale as an intermediate in

photorespiration Photorespiration (also known as the oxidative photosynthetic carbon cycle or C2 cycle) refers to a process in plant physiology, plant metabolism where the enzyme RuBisCO oxygenates RuBP, wasting some of the energy produced by photosynthesis. Th ...

, an undesirable side reaction that competes with

photosynthesis Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabo ...

. It is produced biologically by the

condensation Condensation is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. The word most often refers to the water cycle. It can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapor ...

of two equivalents of glyoxalate: :2{{nbspOC(H)CO₂H → OC(H)CH(OH)CO₂H + CO₂ This condensation is catalyzed by tartronate-semialdehyde synthase.

References

Alpha hydroxy acids Aldehydic acids