Tyrosine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Tyrosine (from the Greek tyros, for "cheese", where it was first discovered) is one of the 20 amino acids that are used by cells to synthesize proteins. It plays a key role in signal transduction, since it can be tagged (phosphorylated) with a phosphate group by protein kinases to alter the functionality and activity of certain enzymes. Other important biological functions of tyrosine are as a precursor of the thyroid hormone, thyroxine and of the biologically active catecholamines, dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline.

Chemical properties:

• Isoelectric point: 5.64
• Mass: 181.19
• Abbreviations: Tyr / Y
• Side chain: hydrophilic
• Chemical formula: C₉O₃H₁₁N (structure)

See also :

• Alkaptonuria
• Tyrosinemia

The original article can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrosine.
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