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Methionine

Methionine
Chemical structure of methionine
Canonical form of methionine
L-Methionine (at physiological pH).svg
Resonance line-angle diagram of L-methionine at physiological pH
Names
IUPAC name
Methionine
Other names
2-amino-4-(methylthio)butanoic acid
Identifiers
59-51-8 YesY
63-68-3 (L-isomer) YesY
348-67-4 (D-isomer) YesY
3D model (Jmol) Interactive image
Interactive image
Abbreviations Met, M
ChEBI CHEBI:16811 YesY
ChEMBL ChEMBL42336 N
ChemSpider 853 YesY
5907 (L-isomer) YesY
ECHA InfoCard 100.000.393
EC Number 200-432-1
KEGG D04983 YesY
PubChem 876
UNII 73JWT2K6T3 YesY
Properties
C5H11NO2S
Molar mass 149.21 g·mol−1
Appearance White crystalline powder
Density 1.340 g/cm3
Melting point 281 °C (538 °F; 554 K) decomposes
Soluble
Acidity (pKa) 2.28 (carboxyl), 9.21 (amino)
Pharmacology
V03AB26 (WHO) QA05BA90 (WHO), QG04BA90 (WHO)
Supplementary data page
Refractive index (n),
Dielectric constantr), etc.
Thermodynamic
data
Phase behaviour
solid–liquid–gas
UV, IR, NMR, MS
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
N  (what is YesYN ?)
Infobox references

Methionine is an essential amino acid in humans. Methionine is important in angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels, and supplementation may benefit those suffering from Parkinson's, drug withdrawal, schizophrenia, radiation, copper poisoning, asthma, allergies, alcoholism, or depression. Overconsumption of methionine, as is typical in the standard American diet, but not vegan diet (although nuts, soy, and beans also have high levels of methionine), is related to cancer growth in a number of studies.

Methionine was first isolated in 1921 by John Howard Mueller.

Methionine (abbreviated as Met or M; encoded by the codon AUG) is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. It contains an α-amino group (which is in the protonated −NH3+ form under biological conditions), an α-carboxylic acid group (which is in the deprotonated −COO form under biological conditions), and an S-methyl thioether side chain, classifying it as a non-polar, aliphatic amino acid.

Methionine is coded for by the initiation codon, meaning it indicates the start of the coding region and is the first amino acid produced in a nascent polypeptide during mRNA translation.

Together with cysteine, methionine is one of two sulfur-containing proteinogenic amino acids. Excluding the few exceptions where methionine may act as a redox sensor (e.g. ), methionine residues do not have a catalytic role. This is in contrast to cysteine residues, where the thiol group has a catalytic role in many proteins. The thioether does however have a minor structural role due to the stability effect of S/π interactions between the side chain sulfur atom and aromatic amino acids in one-third of all known protein structures. This lack of a strong role is reflected in experiments where little effect is seen in proteins where methionine is replaced by norleucine, a straight hydrocarbon sidechain amino acid which lacks the thioether. It has been conjectured that norleucine was present in early versions of the genetic code, but methionine intruded into the final version of the genetic code due to the fact it is used in the cofactor S-adenosyl methionine (SAM). This situation is not unique and may have occurred with ornithine and arginine.


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