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Serine

Serine is a kind of an alpha-amino acid. L-serine is used as a component of a parenteral solution, and D-serine is useful as a material for cycloserine, an antibiotic. Serine is also useful as a material for the production by an enzymatic process of L-tryptophan which is expected to gain future acceptance as a feed additive. L-serine is a compound useful as amino acid transfusion, and also D-serine is useful as a starting material for antibiotics. Also, serine is a compound useful as the starting material of L-tryptophan of which development is expected in an future as the additive for fodder. Serine hydroxymethyltransferase also called as either serine transhydroxymethylase or serine aldolase, widely exists in mammals, birds, higher plants, microorganisms and so forth. It is already known to catalize the reaction of synthesizing a beta-hydroxyamino acid from glycine and an aldehyde carried out using pyridoxal phosphate as a coenzyme. L-serine is widely found in nature as a component for constructing proteins. L-serine has been heretofore produced by hydrolyzing silk yarn, flocks, sericin, human hair, swine hair, etc., which all contain relatively large amounts of L-serine.

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