Definition for Alanine
From Biology Forums Dictionary
One of the set of 20 "standard" amino acids, alanine is the most "vanilla" of all: its side chain is just a methyl group. Alanine is often considered to be a hydrophobic residue, although its small side chain does not present a large amount of non-polar surface area, and it may not be as common in the hydrophobic cores of naturally-occurring proteins as residues of with larger aliphatic side chains such as isoleucine. Alanine has been determined to have the highest "helical propensity" of any of the natural amino acids, on the basis of "host-guest" studies of synthetic peptides.
Frequency of occurrence in proteins: 8.3%. Codons: GCN. Three-letter abbreviation: Ala. One letter code: A.
