General Information (more on wikipidia)
| Species | Molecular Weight (g/mol) | Density (g/L) | Radius (m) | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asparagine | 132.118 | D | R | [1] |
Asparagine is one of the 20 most common natural amino acids on Earth. It has carboxamide as the side chain's functional group. It is considered a non-essential amino acid.
Its three-letter abbreviation is Asn, and its one-letter abbreviation is N. A three-letter designation for either asparagine or aspartic acid is Asx (one-letter abbreviation: B).
A reaction between asparagine and reducing sugars or reactive carbonyls produces acrylamide (acrylic amide) in food when heated to sufficient temperature, i.e. baking. These occur primarily in baked goods such as french fries, potato chips, and roasted coffee.
Asparagine is not an essential amino acid, which means that it can be synthesized from central metabolic pathway intermediates in humans and is not required in the diet. The precursor to asparagine is oxaloacetate. Oxaloacetate is converted to aspartate using a transaminase enzyme. The enzyme transfers the amino group from glutamate to oxaloacetate producing α-ketoglutarate and aspartate. The enzyme asparagine synthetase produces asparagine, AMP, glutamate, and pyrophosphate from aspartate, glutamine, and ATP. In the asparagine synthetase reaction, ATP is used to activate aspartate, forming β-aspartyl-AMP. Glutamine donates an ammonium group which reacts with β-aspartyl-AMP to form asparagine and free AMP.
Diffusion of in water:
- Alone at 25 degrees: $D = 830 \ \mu m^{2} s^{-1}$ [1]
Diffusion of in PBS:
- $D = \ \mu m^{2} s^{-1}$
Diffusion of in cellular matrix:
- $D = \ \mu m^{2} s^{-1}$
