Open Access
The ultra-violet absorption spectra of certain aromatic amino-acids, and of the serum proteins
Author(s) -
F. Smith
Publication year - 1929
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series b, containing papers of a biological character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9185
pISSN - 0950-1193
DOI - 10.1098/rspb.1929.0008
Subject(s) - absorption (acoustics) , amino acid , alanine , tyrosine , absorption spectroscopy , aromatic amino acids , chemistry , extinction (optical mineralogy) , photochemistry , biochemistry , physics , optics , mineralogy
The absorption spectra of the aromatic amino-acids and of the serum proteins have been investigated by Dhéré, 1909 (1), who obtained values for the wave-lengths in close accordance with those found by subsequent workers; he was unable to measure the extinction coefficients, sine at the time no suitable apparatus had been devised. He further noted that the absorption spectrum of tyrosine moved towards the red and tryptophane were responsible for the absorption spectrum of protein. In 1916, Kober (2) investigated the absorption bands of the aromatic amino-acids. Ward (3) in 1923, and Marchlewski (4) in 1925, made use of the rotating sector to measure the extinction coefficients of tyrosine, tryptophane, and phenyl-alanine. The absorption spectrum of tryptophane has also been measured by Abderhalden and Hass (5). In 1922, Judd Lewis (6) measured the absorption spectra of the serum proteins. Stenström and Reinhard (7) have confirmed the work of Dhéré, showing that the aromatic amino-acids present in the protein molecule were responsible for its absorption spectrum.