Term: selenocysteine
Literally
meaning: “pertaining
to selenium and cysteine”
Origin: Anc Greek
σελήνη/selene(=moon) > selenium
(chemical element that was named by Swedish
chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius in 1817 when he noticed that selenium is
associated with tellurium(named for the Earth)
+ κύστις /kystis (=sac, or anatomical sac such as bladder)
>κύω/kyo(=carry a baby in a sac)
Coined/History
The first
article which contains information about selenoprotein was published in 1973 by
Thressa Stadtman, who wrote that glycine reductase was a selenoprotein. The
first article on “selenocysteine” was published in 1976 and described the
chromatographic behaviour of carboxymethylated forms of cysteine and
selenocysteine.
Definition
Selenocysteine
is an amino acid similar to cysteine but with an atom of selenium taking
the place of the usual sulphur. Selenocysteine is encoded by UGA triplet which
is normally a stop codon. It is found in many enzymes that called
selenoproteins.
Sources
Pinsent, J. Biochem. J. 1954,
57, 10. Shum, A. C.; Murphy, J. C. J. Bacteriol. 1972, 110, 447.
Bock, A. PNAS 1986, 83, 4650.
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