Description | Another source of MSG is fruits, vegetables and nuts that have been sprayed with Auxigro. Auxigro is a growth enhancer that contains 30% glutamic acid.
glutamic acid is present in a wide variety of foods and is responsible for one of the five basic tastes of the human sense of taste (umami), especially in its physiological form, the sodium salt of glutamate in a neutral pH. Ninety-five percent of the dietary glutamate is metabolized by intestinal cells in a first pass .
A non-essential amino acid naturally occurring in the L-form. glutamic acid is the most common excitatory neurotransmitter in the Central nervous system. glutamic acid in action at the synaptic cleft is extremely difficult to study due to its transient nature. A team at Stanford University has developed a nanosensor to detect the release of glutamate by nerve cells. The sensor, constructed of proteins, has a pair of lobes that are hinged like a Venus flytrap. When glutamic acid binds to the proteins, the lobes snap shut. Two fluorescent jellyfish proteins are attached to the sensor. One of these proteins both emits blue light and excites a second protein that emits yellow light. When the lobes snap shut on glutamic acid, the blue protein moves away from the yellow protein, decreasing the glow from the yellow. A dimming of the yellow light indicates that glutamic acid has been released from a nerve cell. The sensor can currently be located only on the surface of cell so it can indicate glutamic acid activity only outside the cell.
Glutamate is a key molecule in cellular metabolism. In humans, dietary proteins are broken down by digestion into amino acids, which serves as metabolic fuel or other functional roles in the body. A key process in amino acid degradation is transamination, in which the amino group of an amino acid is transferred to alpha-ketoacid, typically catalysed by a transaminase. The reaction can be generalised as such:
glutamic acid (Glu), also referred to as glutamate (the anion), is one of the 20 proteinogenic amino acids. It is not among the essential amino acids.
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