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d-Proline: Comment to “An overview on d-amino acids”

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Abstract

An excellent 2017 review in this journal about d-amino acids by Genchi aims for a comprehensive representation of the current state of knowledge. Unfortunately, information about both d-proline and proline racemase is almost entirely missing. In our investigations into d/l-Pro-containing neuropeptides in cicadas, we have performed literature surveys in this context. Proline racemases in bacteria are known since 1957; their function has been studied mostly in prokaryotes and, more recently, proline racemase was identified in the unicellular eukaryotic parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Published data on d-proline and/or proline racemase in other species are rare or non-existent.

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Fig. 1

Abbreviations

AA:

Amino acid

PR:

Protein racemase

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IZKF Core Unit Proteomics, Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research, University of Münster, Röntgenstr. 21, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Simone König

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Heather Marco & Gerd Gäde

Authors
  1. Simone König
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  2. Heather Marco
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  3. Gerd Gäde
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Correspondence to Simone König.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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The authors have observed all ethical regulations.

Human/animal rights statement

This letter is based on knowledge obtained from the literature; no experiments with animals or human subjects were performed for this comment.

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Handling Editor: J. D. Wade.

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König, S., Marco, H. & Gäde, G. d-Proline: Comment to “An overview on d-amino acids”. Amino Acids 50, 359–361 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-017-2511-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-017-2511-5

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