Alanine metabolism

The single step synthesis of alanine from pyruvate is unique to Coccidians such as Toxoplasma and Neospora among the phylum of Apicomplexa. This is absent in other groups such as Plasmodium, Theileria and Cryptosporidium species, which utilise alanine from host [1]. Alanine dehydrogenase and alanine transaminase are the enzymes which catalyse this one step conversion. Alanine racemase, a pyridoxal phosphate dependent enzyme which catalyses isomerisation of L-alanine to D-alanine is present in both Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii genomes and annotated to the pyridoxal phosphate metabolism pathway in MPMP as an example of an enzyme that requires pyridoxal phosphate as a cofactor for its function.

List of genes annotated as tRNA-Ala in T. gondii genome

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Sources and fates of metabolites