alanine

[ al-uh-neen, -nin ]

nounBiochemistry.

any of several isomers of a colorless, crystalline, water-soluble amino acid, CH3CH(NH2)COOH, found in many proteins and produced synthetically: used chiefly in biochemical research. Abbreviation: Ala; Symbol: A

Origin of alanine

1860–65; al(dehyde) + -an- (arbitrarily inserted) + -ine²

Words Nearby alanine

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use alanine in a sentence

The team saw that when a virus with an alanine gets into lab-grown human lung cells, it makes more copies of itself than do versions that instead have threonine.
One key change may have helped the coronavirus become a global menace | Erin Garcia de Jesús | August 10, 2021 | Science News For Students
Once a virus with an alanine gets into laboratory-grown human lung cells, it replicates more than versions with threonine, the team found.
One mutation may have set the coronavirus up to become a global menace | Erin Garcia de Jesús | July 12, 2021 | Science News

British Dictionary definitions for alanine

alanine

/ (ˈæləˌniːn, -ˌnaɪn) /

noun

a nonessential aliphatic amino acid that occurs in many proteins

Origin of alanine

C19: from German Alanin, from al (dehyde) + -an- (euphonic infix) + -in -ine ²

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for alanine

alanine

[ ăl′ə-nēn′ ]

A nonessential amino acid. Chemical formula: C3H7NO2. See more at amino acid.

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