Definition
Asparagine is one of the 20 protein amino acids, whose chemical structure is shown in Fig. 1. Its three-letter symbol is Asn and one-letter symbol is N. It has a molecular weight of 132.12. It has an amide group (-CONH2) in its side chain, and it is easily hydrolyzed to give aspartic acid (Asp) and ammonia. In the hydrolysis of proteins and prebiotic organic materials, both aspartic acid and asparagine are determined as aspartic acid. The original source of the aspartic acid (Asp or Asn) cannot be determined by this method, thus it is denoted as Asx. It is classified as a neutral amino acid with an isoelectric point (pI) of 5.41.
Structural formula of asparagine
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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Kobayashi, K. (2011). Asparagine. In: Gargaud, M., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11274-4_112
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