alanine
/ˈæləniːn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.51 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Potatoes can be a good source of alanine."
- "Furthermore, wedelolactone also increased the activities of superoxidase dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and decreased the level of the lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA) in the liver, therefore decreasing the activity of alanine aminotransferase (ALT)."
- "Two alanines are replaced by prolines."
Etymology
From aldehyde + -anine, in reference to aldehyde, with the infix -an- for ease of pronunciation, when the German chemist Adolph Strecker first synthesized alanine in 1850 by mixing acetaldehyde (then just known as aldehyde) with ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, and hydrochloric acid.